Encompassing folk, rock, glam, prog and much more besides – probably no-one better captures the diverse range of artists I try to cover at Darren’s Music Blog than Joshua Burnell.
I reviewed his last album, Flowers Where The Horses Sleep, noting that “for all the quirky left-field musical influences, these freshly-composed songs still manage to retain a strong folk sensibility.” This time, however, Burnell has thrown away the genre rule-book entirely. Glass Knight is a stunningly impressive album and I was privileged to witness him formally launch it at this year’s Cropredy where I described it as “Hunky Dory-era Bowie meets folk rock meets prog”.
Burnell effortlessly plays around with all of these musical strands to come up with something that’s unique, original and utterly compelling. And, importantly – whatever the genre – it’s jam-packed full of damned good, instantly hummable tunes. He’s a wonderfully inventive songwriter and a talented multi-instrumentalist and, once again, demonstrates an instinctive ear for a catchy melody and a poetic turn of phrase.
A concept-album of sorts, with a central character appearing across its ten tracks, Glass Knight encompasses everything from ecological destruction and sci-fi apocalypse to a reworking of an ancient folk tale. From the epic ‘Where Planets Collide’ which introduces the album’s central character, to the delicately poignant ‘Out Of These Worlds, to the retro glammy-sounding ‘Last Rain’ to the impossibly catchy ‘Don’t Lose Your Faith’ to the Ziggy-esque swagger of ‘Lucy’ this is an album I just cannot stop playing. In Glass Knight Joshua Burnell has turned out a bona fide twenty-first century masterpiece.
Released: 11th August 2023 https://www.joshuaburnell.co.uk/
Related posts:
Album review – Joshua Burnell ‘Flowers Where The Horses Sleep’
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