Bess Atwell's songs are written far from city lights, in the South Downs communities where she's lived for most of her 21 years and local folk and singer-songwriter traditions meet a pop sensibility on this album. Produced by Michael Smith (12 Dirty Bullets), observations on identity, self-dismay and claustrophobic social media combine intimacy with rock hooks and gauzier, more expansive atmospheres. Timeless in essence, her songs are solid with modern detail, and a sure sense of place. Atwell's songs find her version of the universal in concrete, domestic moments: a light in the kitchen, a key in the door, catching the train, and the sensual nostalgia recalling the close bodies of an affair. Atwell is a breath of fresh Downland air, confronting 21st century concerns with older wisdom.
