Bedroom Community

Sam Amidon's All Is Well was one of MOJO's albums of 2008.  An entrancing reworking of folk ballads with Bjork producer Valgeir Sigurdsson and New York-based composer Nico Muhly, it wrapped quavering strings, mournful brass and picked guitar around Amidon's delicate, lonesome vocals.

Now stepping from his bareboards hermitage, Amidon - with Sigurdsson, Muhly, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and on Beth Orton - brings a heightened reality and off-register colour to these black-and-white broadsides.

The shift feels alarming at first - Amidon's spare delivery augmented by brass, woodwind, Moog, percussion and Orton - but on tracks such as church spiritual “[Climbing High Mountains”] Trying To Get Home”, nervy fratricide narrative “How Come That Blood” and, alarmingly, the cover of R. Kelly's “Relief”, these extra brushes of light and colour also bring scope and depth, bridging the gap between ancient and modern tales of dark clouds and merciful release.  

Andrew Male