Play 90 second soundbite of 'Autum Song' @ 'CD quality'
'Songs For A Sunday' is a divine 'folk' album; mostly stripped bare to just voice and acoustic guitar, occasional piano and very little else, 'Songs For A Sunday' is like a piece of 'old school' British folk al la, Donovan or Nick Drake. Now that can't be bad can it? Cookson's songs are wonderfully simplistic yet amazingly uplifting; there' aint a lot here to rub anyone up the wrong way - it's just a case of sitting back and letting Will Cookson's breathy, whispery voice and empathetic guitar wash gently over you and heal the hurts, calm the nerves and kick out the jams, just like a alchemist's life-prolonging potion probably would!
Cookson keeps things very chilled here and he creates a beautifully warm and engaging vibe that like of which you don't hear very often nowadays. Cookson's 'unplugged' way is rewarding and massively compelling; it's difficult to switch the player off now and I find myself pressing 'play' again and again. Each time I listen, I hear something new, something that I missed the last time around; that something might just be a word or a subtle key change or the odd note here and there. Just because this is 'stripped back' it doesn't mean you can't get inside of the thing and find the 'truth' behind the simplicity!! Cookson has a certain way about him and he lets his songs wrap around you and make you feel warm and protected.
'Songs For A Sunday' by Will Cookson is an endearing and enriching work that's pretty much as good as it gets; Cookson's simplistic acoustic way is charming and gentle; Cookson knows what he's doing and he certainly makes it all work for him. Where many of Cookson's contemporaries would fill the voids with sound and cram the thing full of double-tracked this and multi-dubbed that, Cookson lets the silence be as loud as the instruments - he knows the value of 'nothing' and uses it sublimely. 'Songs For A Sunday' by Will Cookson is a rare beauty, an extremely well crafted yet lazy sounding album of fine songs, each one given the sparse Will Cookson treatment and every one the better for Cookson's low-key approach - a brilliant album, a stunning work of simplistic acoustic music that's equal to anything currently out there.
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