Joesef - Permanent Damage

“Permanently on my own / I think I miss Glasgow,” Joesef’s voice rings out on ‘East End Coast’, the third track on the Glaswegian’s debut album. Uprooted, unmoored: ‘Permanent Damage’ is an unravelling of the self, disappearing into the bare bones of who Joesef truly is after a complete shattering of the heart. Picking up the pieces, on ‘Permanent Damage’, Joesef undergoes a journey of absolute turmoil and teaches you how to live with what comes next. At times, Joesef’s voice aches with despair and tenderness, pleading in the twilight hours on ‘Just Come Home With Me’. Then he twists, shapeshifting into the unapologetic, bold Joesef we meet on ‘Didn’t Know How To Love You’, with its funk-leaning, drumbeat driven soundscape. There’s never any indication of which version of himself Joesef might slide into next – he might exist grinning in the centre of the dancefloor or slipping along dark streets, inhaling melancholia. There is a surety to ‘Permanent Damage’, however, in the sheer force of lyricism at play. With soulful, silk-like vocals, Joesef weaves this narrative, deftly dealing the blows of this world in absolute destruction, before showing that ultimately, some marks never fade and that’s OK.