Sydney Minsky Sargeant - Lunga

This debut solo record from Sydney Minsky Sargeant might represent the most dramatic change of pace by an artist all year, the frontman of doomy dark electronica merchants Working Men’s Club swapping the claustrophobic synths of that band - as well as recent supergroup side project, Demise of Love - for acoustic guitars and much introspection.

Some of the songs on ‘Lunga’ date back to Sydney’s teenage years in Todmorden, although you get the sense that it has taken him until now - and he’s still only 24 - to find the clarity needed to imbue them with maturity. Musically, it’s sparse - mainly guitar and piano - although there are woozy electronic flourishes here and there, particularly on a couple of stand-outs, ‘Summer Song’ and the gorgeous ‘Hazel Eyes’.

Stylistically, comparisons will be drawn to the likes of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch and, while Sydney demonstrates a similar talent for generating a heady atmosphere from a limited instrumental palette, he has some way to go before his lyricism is on that level; his writing here is sometimes charmingly unvarnished, and other times bordering on trite, perhaps lacking a touch of the weirdness that lends his words for Working Men’s Club such bite. Still, there is an admirable bravery to ‘Lunga’, the sound of a cocksure - and often loose-lipped - frontman letting his guard down and seeing where his vulnerability will take him. On this evidence, it is down a road with much promise.