Shane Nicholson – Hell Breaks Loose

This is the first album of new material since Nicholson’s marriage break-up with Kasey Chambers, with whom he’d recorded his two preceding albums. In that sense this is a new start and it’s a quietly confident one that reflects on the personal attrition of such a traumatic experience as well as geographical locations and depression. Heavy subject matter abounds, yet Nicholson applies a wonderfully light musical touch with plenty of acoustic guitar, piano and shuffling drums. Melodies dance and dive across the thirteen songs that can drift by on early listens but with time their folk and country hooks dig in deep.

7.5/10

Chris Familton