The debut album from singer-songwriter Samm Henshaw has a heavy American flavour. Constructed from strains of rootsy, old-school soul, 90s hip-hop, bluesy jazz and gospel, tracks comparable to Hen Wings – with its references to “curly fries super-sized, candy tea and lemonade” – and Waterbreak, a dreamy sax interlude preaching hydration, appear to be marinated in its tradition. It’s there in a literal sense too: Henshaw delivers lots of his lyrics in an virtually cartoonishly robust US twang.
So it’s a bit disorientating to find that the 26-year-old really hails from south London. In reality, it’s a chunk of context that might simply nudge this report into the realm of intelligent, tasteful however unremarkable tribute, moderately than bracingly private murals (though it must be famous that the gospel affect will be traced again to his reverend father; the British pressure of the style is perennially missed).
What prevents Untidy Soul from falling into that class are Henshaw’s lyrics. His themes are intimate and of the second: that is an album about fashionable notions of selfhood – fallibility, hypocrisy, self-improvement and self-worth. Sufficient meditates on perfectionism; opener Ideas and Prayers is a frank inside monologue about morality and self-image; on Nonetheless Broke – written after he was dropped from Columbia – he fails to search out validation in work, cash and fame.
Gratifyingly, none of that is carried out with a self-serious, woe-is-me angle – as an alternative Henshaw comes throughout as wry, low-key and self-effacing. Maybe there may be some distinctively British character right here in spite of everything.
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