Ben Howard is a 31-year-old British folk singer/songwriter from the Devonshire/Cornwall area of south western England. For a decade now he has been releasing EPs and long players channelling his own post millennial take on the acoustic British folk music renaissance of the late 60s and early 70s. Signed to Island Records in 2011 (home to both the Nick Drake and John Martyn music catalogues) Howard was the 2013 recipient of two BRIT Awards, one for British Breakthrough Act and another for British Solo Male Artist.
Howard’s 3rd album Noonday Dream, released in North America June 1st 2018 on Republic Records, is as exhaustive as it is exhausting with its 50 plus minutes of quiet meditative vibes spread out over 10 long tracks. Throughout Howard dishes up expansive waves of reverb drenched multi layered chill.
Overall the album succeeds best when Howard is focusing on atmospherics, ambient pockets of instrumental bliss sprinkled throughout the record which are more often than not interrupted by Howard’s mostly illegible vocal musings (A Boat To An Island Part II/ Agatha’s Song). Perhaps an all out instrumental record, soundtrack, score or something akin to Brian Eno’s Music For Airports would be a more fitting effort to match Howard’s talents next time around?
Rating 6/10
Star Rating 3/5
2018 Song Of The Day Club Album Review 33/52