Alexis Taylor

Alexis Taylor’s second solo album, Await Barbarians is a series of songs “from the halfway line.’ Possessing the same immediacy as his music with Hot Chip and the adventurousness of his work with About Group, there is a special intimacy to these lyrics, a simplicity and candour in his expression of emotion that brings to mind the best singer-songwriter records from Laurel Canyon, though as always with Taylor the moments of honesty are matched with a sense of humour, playfulness and fun.

Playing and recording all the instruments himself apart from strings, Taylor also presents a more reflective side of his writing and singing - something that has been there all along, but which comes into focus in a more confident and defined manner than before.

With its brushed cymbal-led quiet and solitude, and its startlingly direct recording approach, the album recalls in places the work of such English luminaries as Mark Hollis and Robert Wyatt. Recalling such recordings is one thing, but the record doesn't sound especially like those. Await Barbarians' soundworld is entirely Taylor's own - at times claustrophobic, synth-led and dry, and at others spacious, warm and homely, it always places Taylor's unique and recognizable vocals up front in the mix, rarely adorned by audible effects. Out of its brittleness and submerged sounding musical backdrop, something beautiful emerges in 'New Hours'; in its melodic immediacy and confessional performance, 'Dolly and Porter' is both moving and arresting, its lyric speaking of the emotional often being misjudged as the intellectual:

"I try to put my heart first / You only hear head / You should use yours - / I mean your head and your heart"

AT: "Albums I love like 'Red Apple Falls' by Smog and 'Arise Therefore' by Palace rarely leave my mind when making music, but this record was made pretty much in isolati