Keaton Henson – House Party

Folk | Alternative

73%

 

For all that an artist says about themselves through their work, we can’t ever be sure that we’re seeing the real thing. Sharing your inner thoughts and feelings with the world, cathartic as it may be, requires a difficult degree of openness. Likewise, as much people may pursue it, fame is not all it’s cracked up to be. The level of attention and scrutiny it comes with is hardly conducive for a quiet and peaceful existence. Some degree of emotional wall is needed to maintain sanity long-term. For some the solution is to turn that side of yourself into a separate entity entirely. A larger-than-life musical alter ego to shoulder the burden that comes with having the eyes and ears of the world turned in your direction. A character they can portray when the occasion calls, and still hopefully have a normal life when the costume comes off. The audience only ever sees Superman, and can only guess at the nature of Clark Kent. 

Keaton Henson has never been that kind of artist. Much more of a “what you see is what you get” kind of singer/songwriter. Instead the distance he maintains with the audience is in a very literal sense; his severe anxiety keeping him far from the limelight, with a minimal social media presence and rarely making any public appearances. No stage persona to act as a surrogate, instead his work has often felt more like a handful of diary pages thrown at you while he hastily disappears in the opposite direction. House Party is a “what if?” that presents a different Keaton to the one we know. It’s a loose concept album that imagines him as an artist that’s been hiding behind a carefully constructed facade for far too long. A decorative outer shell grown too large, with the real artist within left feeling small and struggling to break out and connect. 

At its best this approach manifests itself as Keaton’s most fleshed-out and upbeat record to date, with tracks more often than not playing host to full band arrangements. Opening indie rocker ‘I’m Not There’ starts the album on a high with one of the best tracks of the year. Bright melodic riffs, a sublime groovy bass line and an earworm hook, all so finely polished you immediately begin to believe the world wherein he’s an acclaimed crowd-pleasing indie frontman. ‘Envy’ has a lush and charming Americana sound, the chaotic solo at the close of ‘The Meeting Place’ reminds me a little of the heavier moments from 2013’s Birthdays, while the jaunty piano arrangement and soft brass on ‘Stay’ has an almost Randy Newman-esque feel. 

However, the album struggles to keep the same high standard throughout, lagging behind with a few filler tracks on the tail end. The run of ‘Late To You’, ‘Parking Lot’ and ‘Holiday’ in particular struggles a bit by comparison. Each of them feel like a awkward middle ground; not as developed as the album’s highlights, but still too much going on to fall back on the stark austere folk that we know and love. 

Despite in some ways being Keaton’s most “present” album, him committing to the theme by appearing on the cover and in music videos – anxiety be damned, the greater degree of disconnect in the songwriting can feel a little jarring. Having come to associate him with some of the most heart-wrenchingly intimate songs around, both in the tender fragility of his performances and the raw confessional lyricism, the shift in perspective in the songwriting here, while small on paper, still feels noticeable. Especially after 2020’s strikingly personal Monuments. While House Party‘s highlights prove that change is not necessarily a bad thing, its filler shows that change is often a process and that there’s still work to be done. While not quite up to the standard of his other main studio albums, it brings some refreshing new sounds and ideas to the table, and feels like a promising first draft for what’s to come next.