Keaton Henson – Birthdays (2013)

This is one of the most special albums I own. The big masses, especially outside of UK, have probably never even heard of Keaton Henson. He used to be a visual artist who just recorded songs for himself at his home. He only started publishing anything after his friend had recommended it after persuading Henson to send him some of his music. The first album was already an intimate and beautiful album, but the second album Birthdays goes beyond, being simultaneously a very tender and endearing album and an album full of anxiety and grief. Henson's high and trembling voice is filled with emotions. He may not be technically a good singer, but at least for me, his voice shows his soul a lot more than anyone who sings "correctly". Birthdays is a fantastic album that can shut the outside world away and take you to your own little bubble filled just with your own thoughts.



Around the time of this album's release, I had only lived in London for a bit more than a year. I was still very much in love with the city and could not see all the bad aspects of living here. What made me love my new home town even more was the fact that there was a huge billboard advertising this album in Shoreditch. In Finland, it would've been an impossibility to get a billboard advertising this kind of introverted, yet beautiful music.

As the people who know me and people who read this blog will know, the aspect I'm most excited about music are the unique and personal vocals. Keaton Henson definitely has his own voice. When I first heard it, I was overwhelmed. How could someone carry so much weight with such a fragile voice. There are many times I've cried listening to this album out of sheer beauty of it. The other instrumentation is also very subtle. Only echoey and clean electric guitars and strings make up most of the instruments in the majority of the songs. Because the first part of the album is so quiet and beautiful, the impact of actually hearing the drums later on is quite massive. The song Don't Swim ends with massive post-rock sound wall that breaks the silence and kind of brings Henson out of his shell. That song is followed by Kronos, which is seriously anguished song with amazingly hopeless mood. The overdriven guitars and banging drums with the fragile and trembling vocals is a combination that cannot be easily beaten.

Keaton Henson suffers from anxiety and therefore he has not performed live much. His only gigs, for a long time, were just in small venues such as art galleries and churches around London. When he actually performed at a bigger venue finally at Southbank Centre, the concert sold out. I didn't get the tickets, because by then, Henson had released another album that I wasn't too thrilled about. I kind of regret it a bit now, because it still could've been amazing. His voice is something I would definitely want to hear live once. Now I just have to enjoy his fine music videos. The video for You works perfectly for this type of music. It just shows a group of people sleeping. While the music progresses, the people start levitating in slow motion. The video ends with Henson turning his face towards the camera for the first time.

There are not many albums that would transfer me out of this world so successfully as this one. It's a great masterpiece that will definitely continue to speak to me for the rest of my life.

listen to the album on Spotify.