Keaton Henson - Birthdays (2013/2020) [Hi-Res]

“One of the most beautiful voices I've heard” recently proclaimed NPR Music's Robin Hilton when describing the rising young poet laureate of heartbreak Keaton Henson. Already an acclaimed visual artist and now an emerging musical sensation back home in England, Henson has just released his new album Birthdays in North America via Anti-.

Produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, The Shins, The Strokes) and recorded in Los Angeles, far from the the reclusive Englishmen's safe haven in North London, Birthdays uses Henson's brilliant debut Dear... as a point of departure, adventurously expanding the sonic palette while retaining every bit of its heart and soul.

Though created almost entirely on guitar, Birthdays generates an affective sound that is unexpectedly complex and powerfully evocative. The lyrics are so deeply personal it can feel voyeuristic, recalling the confessions of a close friend or lover. If one were to reach for a point of reference, it would be figures such as Nick Drake and Tim Buckley or even Dylan Thomas and Oscar Wilde. In an early review of Birthdays, the BBC proclaimed, “Henson’s stripped-back sound is almost shocking in its purity.”

“This follow-up to last year's impressive debut, Dear, is no less musically intense or lyrically unflinching, but now Henson's quavering anxiety has flesh on its bones.” (Uncut)

“The British singer-songwriter has drawn comparisons to Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, but tracks like “Lying To You” and “Sweetheart, What Have You Done To Us” sound crisper and more sonically complex than any material those two ever produced.” (AV Club)

"Henson's private agony is proving addictive." (The Guardian)

"Beautifully fragile" (Evening Standard)


Recorded at Sunset Sound, The Bank Studios and Lightship95 Engineered by Geoff Neal, Bill Mims Mastered by Brian Lucey at Magic Garden Mastering Produced by Joe Chiccarelli