Lion Devours the Sun

Mat Sweet's fragile, rustic brand of neo-folk has already developed considerably since his warmly-received debut EP, and the songs on his first full-length Lion Devours The Sun have a richness and maturity at odds with his youth. Recorded at home with a four-track and single microphone, the album retains the withdrawn, restrained air that gives Sweet his distinctive character as a songwriter, utilising acoustic guitar, toy piano, an e-bowed autoharp, and various musical props to generate an unearthly, pagan atmosphere. His alchemical power to transform a minimal palette of common musical elements into something that is not simply psychedelia or folk is in evidence more than ever on this darkly accomplished record.