Bess Atwell - Light Sleeper

People say that you shouldn't meet your heroes. For Brighton's Bess Atwell, though, that's not the case at all. Her new album, 'Light Sleeper', was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner at his Long Pond Studio, made famous by a certain member of The Tortured Poets Department. Clearly, there's something in the air up there that creates diamonds.

The Dessner sprinkle of stardust makes its presence known across this record, with Atwell combining her always-flawless vocal performance with a buttery folk-pop backdrop built to tell the most tragic of stories. From channelling Leonard Cohen in 'Everyone Who's Not In Love With You Is Wrong', acknowledging your own flaws in 'Release Myself', and giving your whole self to relationships in 'Crowds' and title-track 'Light Sleeper'. The highlight of the record is also the most gut-wrenching, with the quiet acoustics allowing Atwell's pure vocal to take centre stage, breaking your heart and then putting it all back together again.

'Light Sleeper' very clearly sticks to a path, using the same sonic landscape across all ten tracks on the record. As such, it's not necessarily exciting, and sometimes songs begin to blend into each other. Nonetheless, it's a raw, honest, introspective journey into the human condition. When it comes to finding musical talent, Aaron Dessner is very rarely wrong, and this latest Bess Atwell record proves it wholeheartedly.