Monument Valley – Tounges EP
I first heard the amazing talent of Ned Younger on the Communion Flowerpot Sessions album earlier this year. I then caught him live on the Ben Francis Leftwich tour, and as amazing as he is live, on record he captivated me. You don’t have to have clever instrumentation when your lyrics cast a spell like these do. If anything, the sparse production on this debut EP – out now on Transgressive Records – only serves to make the whole thing more magical.
The PR blurb tells me that Ned drew inspiration from collecting old photographs at boot sales, and it kind of all makes sense of the immense depth of the social commentary on the whole record. He kind of covers all bases on this, and it’s a stunning four-track introduction to an artist who will be gracing our turntables for many years to come. Fittingly, the Tongues release format reflects its distinctive origins – the EP is accompanied by a beautiful book, comprised of lyrics to several of Younger’s ‘imagined’ songs, alongside the original photographs which inspired them with accompanying illustrations by Mikey Smith. I beg you to listen and fall in love with this record, every track will warm your winter nights and maybe place you in a reflective mood as it does to me. This is one of those records that I feel to the pit of my stomach, with the closing track, ‘Dear John Letters’, making its way to my favourite track of 2011.
http://www.monumentvalley.co.uk/blog/
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