![]() Likewise, closing track Those Thieving Birds Pt. It’s a high-wire act and he only occasionally slips. Johns’ grander orchestral ambitions are pushed to 11 on opener Reclaim Your Heart his full-throated vocal is so rich and completely over the top, pushed so high in the mix, that it feels uncomfortably intimate at times, sliding towards histrionics while somehow still feeling sincere. As a collection of music, it is unassailable, ambitious, and often brilliant, with the album’s high points sitting among his very best work.įutureNever begins and ends with the same piano run, a stab at cohesion furthered by Johns’ decision to bookend the record with the two most bombastic songs of his career, both of which would have been at home on the Dracula puppet musical. Which is only to say that FutureNever makes for an uneven album. As a concept album, it seems suspiciously reverse-engineered. As a statement of intent, it is inscrutable. It’s shocking Johns released this in the traditional album format at all, considering the sonic dissonance. There’s also a lot more guitar shredding than expected, despite this being very much not a guitar record. There are four songs that seem like offcuts from an aborted operetta, a few dance collaborations that belong on Ministry of Sound mixes, and a handful of tracks that split the difference between the slinky electro of his debut solo album, Talk, and his bright and loopy Dissociatives work with Paul Mac. FutureNever feels like a number of separate projects played on shuffle.
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