Chris Brain – New Light Review

Part of the charm for an album like New Light is the location you are listening from. Chris Brain goes through great pains, laborious and rewarding efforts, to paint a picture of lush fields and charming moments in the great outdoors. His previous album, Steady Away, portrayed an autumnal chill. New Light is the beautiful cracks of Spring put to song. Those brighter days, the shedding of a cold season and on we head, with folk charm close at hand. Hop on a train to London, watch the trees recede from view and turn to concrete structures. Feel for the loss of nature but make up for it in the charming moments, the wordplay Brain has at hand in these acoustic-led charmers. New Light is as steady and welcome a project as expected of the ongoing folk boom in the UK, a fantastic experience. 

A titular opener with this much charm must be applauded. Steady tempos, a break in the middle to take a moment, catch your breath and go on again with those enlightened tones, it all comes together beautifully. Spend a little more time with follow-up song Two Lights and the immediate charms of Brain’s perception of nature, of the world around us, opens that little bit more. Glide is the right word for Sun Did Glide, and once more Brain has compartmentalised those welcome feelings of being in the warm glow, the sweeter experiences. This is not just the route taken on Steady Away, some crucial instrumental additions are made. They offer the next step for the genre, the subtle wonders of string on Into the North adds a much-needed extra layer to dig into, once more highlighting the wonderful charms of taking a breath, a step back from the busy days ahead. 

Tender family charmers like Brother and the intimacies, the every day experiences we take for granted on Feeling Gone are charted with such a realness to them, such an earnestness. It helps that Brain is a wonderful acoustic player, a man who uses his guitar and his wonderful writing as a way of reconnecting a listener with the fundamentals. We take the day for granted and, as such, find ourselves adrift. But use New Light and these charmed, relaxed songs, as a point of recall. Centre yourself with the relatable but ever-hopeful Feeling Gone, build yourself back to a point of wellness with Rolling On. All those honest charms, the free and sweet way of living. An idealistic one, sure, but an achievable course to chart, nonetheless. 

Album closer Sit and Wonder Why asks us to do just that. After a charming half hour, Brain turns his attention on us, the listener. We are asked to take a moment for ourselves, and that is exactly what we should do. Give yourself a moment in the evening, a particular time in the day, to truly reflect on what Brain has written, what he has asked of his listener. Folk charm is one effort, but to change the perception of it as a genre, to relax into those welcome tones of New Light and find one in ourselves. To rekindle the fire, to find that new light. That is what this album does so beautifully, and the tone taken is not just passively sweet but, at its best, actively inspiring.