Gruff Rhys
Hotel Shampoo
Turnstile
who knew everyone’s favourite welshman had an extensive collection of hotel shampoo bottles so big that it warranted naming his 3rd solo album after it? rhys is becoming somewhat of a bacharach, the aim of this album to write a set piano ballads but the result definitely adds a twist, framing his songwriting with some restrained production from andy votel.
piano & acoustic guitar are the main instruments of choice. however, the mariachi horns of ‘sensations in the night’, string arrangements of ‘vitamin k’, electronic burblings of ‘rubble rubble’ & the romantic duet with el perro del mar make this his most ambitious & fully realised yet. “sit back & bask in its glow” 4/5 - q, “beautifully arranged tracks, each imbued with an infectious energy” 8/10 - clash.
