J Churcher – Borderland State

We all love a romantic. Not too soppy. No over the top PDA. But smitten? Smitten is nice.

Having released dreamlike, hazy singles ‘Yesterday’ and ‘In The Summer’ like love letters scrawled on scrunched up paper and passed through to someone at the front of the class, crooner J Churcher’s debut is his final, smitten declaration. Locking the hands of specked synth and twinkling keys, ‘I Remember’ spins a story about the girl who wears his jacket shirt. The mysterious Londoner’s rich vocals are husked, though show no inhibition in unveiling the heart’s desires and pains through striking narrative.

Regal orchestration and backing vocals from Anna B. Savage on three tracks help cast a cinematic scope. Most songs wouldn’t seem out of place as the last dance at J Churcher’s prom. If he ever got there, that is. Inquisitive and on tenterhooks, he seems to be a man obsessed by love. Delicate percussion makes the heart ache on the minimal ‘How It Ends’, and it’s tempting to root for a romance that otherwise seems so doomed. There’s a sense, though, that his story doesn’t end at ‘Borderland State’.