til night meets the sun

*****

It might just be me, but listening to this Loren Kate EP I couldn’t help getting a sense of eavesdropping, as if I was hearing a very honest conversation about feelings, family histories, love and death – and wondering if I really should be party to this level of personal detail.  Except of course, it’s all been put to music and placed in the public domain, so the intention to share is perhaps a kind of catharsis and presumably, helping others by doing so.

Luckily, it’s also easy to appreciate on a purely musical level.  The style is largely acoustic country and folk, with appropriate electric guitar, bass and drums as required.  Each song is well structured and certainly memorable, making it easy to enjoy the EP repeatedly.  Loren Kate’s voice is light, melodic and with good control, as shown on ‘This Heart Of Mine’ for one example.  Likewise, the relatable story telling of ‘Rollin’ Wheel’ is wedded to a lovely melody and like the overall recording, is well produced with good instrument placing and arrangement.

If a lead track is defined by being the one with a video, then ‘When You Leave’ is the applicable song here.  Frankly, it’s about visiting an ex-partner for the last time on his hospital death bed, but is handled with such dignity and strength that it’s hard not to be drawn in, and yet again the gorgeous tune plays its part in keeping the listener in the song’s world regardless.

Of course, the confessional singer songwriter is not a new phenomenon but I seem to be encountering quite a few such recordings in recent times.  With its combination of admirable honesty and engaging music, Til Night Meets The Sun is easily up there with the best of them.