In October of 2012, in a tiny independent record shop, a side event to The Gathering in Oxford, I had my first encounter with the transcendent wonder of Luke Sital-Singh. At the time I had just started dating my now wife, and she had excitedly told me I should hear him. I wasn’t confident, but wanting to impress my new girlfriend. I dutifully allowed myself to be dragged down the Cowley Road. He shuffled in, quite an unassuming-looking chap. Definitely an indie singer-songwriter. There may have been 20 people there. Maybe slightly more, but this was certainly not a big deal in the offing. As he set up, apparently nervously, I wondered what would unfold. “I Have Been a Fire” stuttered into life, with its gentle, almost non-descript first verse, and I was drifting away. All of a sudden, Luke bellowed “I have been a fire” with an almighty guitar clang, redolent of Radiohead at their most truculent and I was jolted back to attention. What was this angelic beauty? In an all-too-short 20 minute set I was hooked beyond belief. Afterwards, I convinced my girlfriend to buy the Fail For You EP from a slightly bewildered looking tunesmith and one of those musical obsessions began, the kind which come to exist in a moment but are so powerful that you wonder how you managed without them for so long.
Following that night in Oxford, a lot has changed. For one, I’m married now. For another, after a prolonged period of releasing ever-more urgent EPs, The Fire Inside, Luke’s debut album, is finally here. I’ve been intrigued to see that Iain Archer plays a large part in Luke Sital-Singh’s production. Another favourite of mine, Archer shares the wistfully insistent quality of songwriting that makes Luke so special. Both of them write what are basically pop songs, but which at the same time have a quiet sense of epic desperation, darkness hidden underneath breezy melodies and lilting lyricisms.
The album begins with Nothing Stays the Same and The Greatest Lovers, two uptempo tunes which could have fitted on Archer’s Flood the Tanks, a criminally underrated album of the early part of the last decade.
It is on gentler tracks such as Bottled Up Tight, Nearly Morning and Fail For You that the genius of this artist shines through brightest, however. Vocally yearning, melodically and harmonically satisfying and doused in beauty, these songs truly shine. Particularly Fail For You. I’ve never been sure whether this is about a girl, or a love song from a parent, or God to a child, but it is one moment where the aforementioned transcendence really shines through. Whatever its about, it is a wonderful moment. It is also the only track from previous EPs left seemingly-unchanged for this album. You can’t improve on perfection.
Moments of beauty abound throughout the album. Through it, the satisfaction of hearing a young songwriter mature in to a formidable talent and voice in pop culture is palpable. Finishing with two more restrained moments of wonder, Cornerstone and Benediction leave the heart straining.
It will be exciting to see where Luke goes next after this splendid album. A summer of festivals, including Greenbelt this weekend, and a tour in the autumn (on which the equally brilliant Karima Francis opens) are in his immediate future. Some of the venues on the forthcoming tour are tiny. Make the effort to see him. I don’t think he’ll be playing venues of that size again. A formidable talent, armed with great songs and a stunning album. The world could be his oyster.