Review Summary: sweetheart, what have you done to us....
Keaton Henson makes music to be felt.
Romantic Works is, therefore, the most apt title for his latest offering.
The 26-years old London-based singer/songwriter suffers heavily from stage fright. In the few instances he plays gigs, he sticks to art galleries and churches. That anxiety has fuelled his trembling songs since 2010’s debut
Dear.., and its spacious acoustics. 2013’s
Birthdays added onto this a second side of heavy, paranoia-laden alt-rock, assisted by members of
Band Of Horses and
Pearl Jam, among others.
Romantic Works takes the sidestep by stripping back the raw fragilities of Keaton Henson’s music, and simply being a work led by piano and collaborator Ren Ford’s cello.
Romantic Works succeeds in transforming Henson’s usual tales of heartache and emotional brutality into wordless compositions that both sweep and yearn. “Elevator Song” builds, the cello at some points literally sounding as if it’s aching. “Josella” both sounds epic and hollow. At only 31 minutes in length,
Romantic Works is brief, but all the better for it, giving the listener a quick guttural punch in emotion, and then swiftly leaving. It is certainly heavy.
While it was already known that Keaton Henson was a very talented songwriter, as well as artist,
Romantic Works proves he is also a skilled composer, able to transmute worldly emotions into tight pieces, never outstaying their welcome or diluting their message. The fact that his songs frequently soundtrack wordless short films, and that
Romantic Works itself sounds a like a score for a film yet to be made, suggests that Keaton Henson has a few more plans in-store. He may be fragile and anxious, but he’s certainly restless as well
