Ben Howard – is this it? – Buy Album

Two years later collection from whiteoutAward winning British singer-songwriter ben howard come back with it is?A record that changes course compared to earlier works, characterized by an acoustic, warm and at the same time melancholic songwriting, although continuing along the lines of the aforementioned Test, born in collaboration with Aaron Dessner and his team.

Fifth album with DJ-producer Nathan Jenkins aka bullionsSo doesn’t leave out the vocal figure, which earned him a Mercury Prize nomination, though what changes is the production, with pop-tronic motifs between programmed vocal samples, stereophonic playing, reverse guitar and caressing rhythms on a drum machine. Is.

guitar, who still hears back John Martinand her delicate voice (imagine the most charming Paul Simon And nick drake possible, other than the “normal” José González) is still the pivot around which the music moves, the arrangement however shuffles the cards and captures a special moment in which the singer, originally from Devon, himself Found aphonic but with heightened senses. In that moment of ecstasy, he had become, in his own words, “hypersensitive to everything”, in fact he was experiencing two small heart attacks.

occurs before and after such an experience and while it is what it speaks of (and immerses the listener in) it is?

A collection of gentle songs, suspended in the clouds, not particularly sharp from the point of view of specific pieces, but with the album as a whole painting a personal and multi-faceted fresco in which it’s good to get lost (but also reflect on the fragility of life). .