MARWOOD,BEN - Get Found (Sealed) (CD)

The long-awaited return of singer-songwriter Ben Marwood, one of Xtra Mile Recordings’ most treasured artists, means the release of his third album Get Found will be on 7th April 2017. The album doesn’t stray far from its roots but plays with them tenderly. Pedal steel aches on ‘Enraptured’, while ‘DNFTTTS’ is pure andante piano melody. ‘Nights’ chugs and spits before bellowing into the most uplifting-sounding chorus about death you’ve heard yet – and there are plenty to come. “I’m not dead, I’m not dying, I just can’t get up,” confesses Ben on ‘I’m Wide Awake It’s Boring’ as one of just two songs that directly reference his mental and physical state of that difficult year. But Ben’s still able to pull his best from just his familiar flowing finger-style and disarmingly affecting voice on ‘Bones’ and ‘Bury Me In the Pantheon’. Penultimate song ‘The Devil Makes Work For Jazz Hands’ dwells on death and immobility again (“the weight of the world is locked on your shoulders forever”) before sliding in a slick guitar solo and resolving into a plea of “you should know that you can’t fear all of the things you fear in the dark”. Confessional and demanding of attention – it’s great to have Ben Marwood back.