Rating: NNN
There are lots of breakup records out there, but Chris Velan’s fifth album, The Long Goodbye, is unusually forthright about its heartbreak.
Though Iestyn Polson – who worked on Velan’s last album, Fables For Fighters – returns to production duties here, it’s a more rootsy, personal listen less poppy and world-inspired than Fables was and more homespun. What Velan’s lost in zing, he’s gained in relationship insight, but be warned: this is an at-times diary-entry-like walk through wintry breakup territory. The fact that Velan plays many of the instruments himself – including guitar, bass, piano, ukulele, synths – adds to that lonely feeling.
But it’s worth hanging on until the end for hints of hope and optimism on Gorgeous Morning, and Cariad Harmon’s vocals on bittersweet and relatively upbeat duet Did We Ever Have A Chance.
Top track: Waking Heart