Championed by the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Chris Martin and Jo Wiley, singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Conrad Lambert aka MERZ, first threatened to storm the pop barricades back in 1999. Signed to Sony/Epic on the strength of the self-released 7-inch ‘Many Weathers Apart’, Merz delivered his debut album, a beautiful synthesis of pastoral folk and electronica several years ahead of its time. A Channel Four documentary, Jools Holland appearance and Glastonbury slot followed. And then…Merz disappeared, due to a combination of major label shenanigans and personal demons. He withdrew from the spotlight, signed on in his home town of Huddersfield and began a long process of rediscovery in his ‘Warm Cigarette Room.’
The result is Loveheart, a rich, warm album, replete with a dazzling variety of instrumentation (including Wurlitzer, ukulele, harpsichord, Native American Bass Drum, synths and drum machines), and heartfelt lyrics delivered with a tender intensity reminiscent of Starsailor’s James Walsh.
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On Loveheart’s opener‘Postcard from a Dark Star’ Merz expresses a desire to return to ‘a deep surging sea, a place of sweet relief’ over a simple piano motif, and this is a good a description of the mood of the album as any. It is gentle in tone, whilst having a hard-wrought lyrical and musical depth, offering up sonic pearls to the patient listener.
Loveheart is probably not an album that will catapult Merz into the media spotlight, but I very much doubt that this is a place he wants to be. Instead, it should return him to the heart of the new folk, a much nicer and more manageable place.
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