William Doyle - Springs Eternal

two versions available - standard orange sleeve edition on blue vinyl; limited blue sleeve edition on orange vinyl w/ print

William Doyle returns with a literate, character-driven vision of pop-maximalism that shifts his ever-inventive songwriting into perhaps its most accessible form to date. Though writing for Springs Eternal began in Manchester close to something like three years ago, these eleven tracks truly found their shape when recorded with Tuung fella Mike Lindsay in Margate - hedged by the sea, water seems to become a central theme, it's flowing, it's vitality, it's rising. And there's even a fish on the cover should you require any further convincing. Inevitably, the songs glide with a certain motion, bursting forth with signature Doyle melodic hooks, art-pop and krauty guitar riffs and acerbic lyrical aphorisms. It's immediately joyous and open, but repeated listens do uncover richer threads of thought, Doyle often caught ruminating on various quarter-life crises, 21st century anxieties and mental health challenges, all from varying perspectives. What on the surface seems celebratory becomes unusually personal on closer observation, the smart use of metaphor and character a good device for driving at some bigger, more complex issues. There's a lot of William Doyle hidden away in these tracks, though where imagination ends and he himself starts is tantalisingly unclear (don't worry about the death in the final track though: i can confirm that Doyle is still very much alive). Overall it makes for a deeper artistic expression, a series of counterpoints that add up to a complete record both immediate and lasting. The art-/krautrock influences of previous works are still part of the DNA (and quite literally - Brian Eno does contribute to a few songs), though some of the sideways spun pop inventions do just as much recall the eccentric melodicism of early Super Furries and Gorky's, both bands who knew their way around an unconventional hook. Doyle is a good few albums into his career now, and his earworm skills have never really been in question, though on Springs Eternal it does feel as if he's worked out how to best balance the emotional, the smart and the personal into its most cohesive form yet.