This is Adrian Crowley's sixth album and, if his back catelogue is as sturdy, ruminative and often lovely as this, one might have to start digging into those records too (beginning, perhaps, with 2007's Long Distance Swimmer).
Crowley sings carefully written songs with a serious baritone that is more melodic on subsequent listens than on the first. His timbre does sound, to these ears, almost identical to Bill Callahan of Smog, but Crowley's muse is more obviously sombre and the music more beautiful. Indeed, At The Starlight Hotel is just gorgeous, glimmering with a glittering echo-chamber of plangent sound, perhaps resembling the luscious melancholy of Tindersticks in their prime (think of Tiny Tears).
The Morning Bells is a fine song, too, and there are nine others here, all with something to separate Crowley from the legions of sensitive singer-songwriters out there - perhaps some hard-won perspective, as well as a nifty way with a tune and, importantly, arrangement (there are marxophones here, mellotrons, omnichords and other well-chosen aural embellishments). All told, a rich and rewarding album.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article