William Doyle

Doyle's latest is a revelation of bucolic electro-acoustic pop wonderment - he might have swapped his muddy boots for something more dancefloor appropriate but the wind-whipped bracken is never far from tapping on the studio door as he bounces from one charming electro-bop to the next.

This constantly evolving Dinked alumnus is back with a gorgeous work of frenetic art-pop that has our John Grant / BC Camplight lobes purring. Serving up art-pop for the anthropocene, 'Springs Eternal' is the Mercury-nominated William Doyle’s most ambitious and most playful creation to date. Taking a panoramic view of the ecstasies and agonies of life in the 2020s, the record asks how we exist as fragile flesh and blood – our hearts beating and our minds racing – in an unprecedented, almost unimaginable time of runaway climate destruction and technological expansion. 'Springs Eternal' presents a strange and thrilling cast of characters – from cowboys to castaways – who just might be Doyle, once or twice removed. “Most of the songs are in the first-person, but rather than being autobiographical, I was trying to imagine hyperreality versions of myself,” Doyle says. “What if decisions I made in my life had resulted in the self of each particular song? How many degrees of separation am I from those realities? It’s a frightening thought, and frightening thoughts often make for good songs.”

Across 11 tracks, we hear from narrators teetering on the precipice of global disaster, heartbreak, addiction, indoctrination and mental illness, until they pass into the great unknown. The lyrics, by turns earnest and ironic, upfront and allegorical, are paired with infectious melodies and often outright swagger. Co-produced by indie superproducer Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP) at his MESS studio in Margate, we hear the siren song of the sea washing around pulsating electronics and stirring instrumentation, featuring contributions from musicians Alexander Painter, Genevieve Dawson and Brian Eno.

RIYL: Brian Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Wyatt, Euros Childs, Cleaners from Venus