Paul Thomas Saunders’ Beautiful Desolation [Explicit] debut album. But Saunders, formally of the verdant Leeds music scene, is a musician of rare talent, and of course he knows what he’s doing. What’s perhaps most impressive is that he’s taken some of the best songs from his back catalogue of EPs and singles and made them even better. Perhaps most notable among these is ‘Starless State Of The Moonless Barrow’, the stand-out track from the Four Songs In Twilight EP which is taken into orbit with the electronic treatment it gets here. The space metaphor is an apt one – it’s the dominant theme on an album where form and content mesh perfectly. It’s a retro view of the future, and the Vangelis influence is keenly felt – nowhere more so than on ‘In High Heels Burn It Down’ and ‘Wreckheads & The Female Form’ which sound almost like they could come from a musical version of Blade Runner. It’s an atmosphere set up by sweeping opener ‘Kawai Celeste’, and one which never goes away.
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