Reviewed by Oscar Hyde

The 52 year old Welsh songsmith delivers a mostly downbeat album, contemplative, string-laden set. 'Songs For The Coming Home' has no excursions into blues, jazz or funk and occasionally the songs are so soft as to veer into pseudo-ambient territory. But such is Joseph's grasp of melody and lyric that his songs never lose their focus. I've rarely heard gang vocals so soothing as on the gorgeous wordless chorus of "Still A Lot Of Love Around Here". The contemplative atmosphere provides all the better opportunity to admire Joseph's wordsmithery - the dizzying rhyme scheme of transhumanist indictment "Beyond Us" stands out in particular. Even more, it provides space to fall in love with the stories he tells, such as the alt-country epic "Clara", a commemoration of a work of kindness and its ripple across a lifetime. Closing track "Archive" slowly burns, never boils, barely even registers as building, but provides an uneasy catharsis to an uneasily resolved album, one that acknowledges the difficulty of homecoming, but is determined to accomplish it anyway.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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