Keaton Henson - The Lucky EP
Keaton Henson has appeared to be something of an enigma. Releasing his debut, 'Dear...', earlier this year to a fair bit of critical acclaim if not fame, he returns to us with The Lucky EP. The lack of totally widespread fame probably plays into his hands, though. In the past he has literally not been able to play gigs because of the terrible stage fright from which he suffers. In terms of social media, he has also been quite reclusive, announcing mysterious, unspecified events featuring him or his work online before putting them into practise. Most recently, his facebook page posted a picture simply saying 'something occurs...October 4th, save the date'. This announcement has since been revealed to be an event (could be a gig, we're not sure) at London's Cinema Museum, Kennington. It has since sold out and another date has been added. He must be doing something right.
It is perhaps best to begin playing the EP with this thought in mind: Keaton Henson's music was arguably never meant to be heard by anyone except himself, and a lot of it is addressed to a nameless ex-partner. Henson himself is very aware of this and sometimes plays on that, perhaps most memorably on his website, under a section labelled 'intrude'. Here we find an interactive book inviting the reader to turn the pages. If you do, you find a little note addressed to you, gentle listener:
"Dear unknown, I hope you listen as though it were all for you. I hope she knows it was. I hope you can forget I do both. It meant more before. The Author."
His new EP marks the official release of what might be termed a fan-favourite, the spine-tingling You Don't Know How Lucky You Are, and this is what it opens with. Immediately one can draw comparisons to many singer songwriters such as Bon Iver, or Damien Rice, as Henson adopts the style of one man and his guitar. The sparseness works to great effect, giving Henson's heart-breaking vocals and lyrics a chance to shine. The lyrics themselves are simple, but effective: to write examples of them out here would not do them justice, but when delivered on record, it makes for a powerful and at times uncomfortable listen. And I mean that in the most artistically pleasing sense of the word.
The EP from here on flows almost seamlessly, the tracks blending into one another (a couple of times I genuinely didn't notice the changes), but unfortunately this is where the interest on my part ended. Compared with the frankly stunning opener, the rest of the tracks here are made to seem average at best, especially the closing cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. However, if I were asked to sum up this release (which I kind of am), I would say that it is definitely worth hearing, if only for 'You Don't Know How Lucky You Are'.