Danny Saul – Harsh, Final

These are tunes sensitively drawn, defiantly made, and deliberately too long for both radio and the short attention spans of his peers. Instead we are allowed to revel in the long-form, are left grasping for reference points, brazen novelty long ago discarded as mere trivia. ‘My Escape’ details ”a wall of doubt” with a crumbling, threatened, growling undercarriage barraging the tune, about to collapse beneath the listener at any moment. The album builds to a head on the wonderful ‘Cannonball’, just shy of thirteen minutes, and is bracketed by two shorter pieces ‘(harsh)’ and ‘(final)’, which bring a heady sense of disorientation and an unusual focus to the longer tune resting between them. Check this track and reflect on ”the outcome / we wait / to see”.

‘Harsh, Final’ maintains this pared-down and deliberate atmosphere throughout – recurring themes of death and escape culminate in a cover of a heartfelt lament for a personal loss by Manchester’s Hotpants Romance (think a much more glamorous Shaggs), here reinterpreted as an oppressive and over-possessive love song. Its cumulative build of layered guitar and harmony vocals eventually fades, leaving Saul’s solitary voice reassuring the listener that ”we’ll be OK / you’ll see”, echoing the album as it began, with a single exposed musician [guitar, vocal], indelibly human and unforgettably resonant.