Enveloping, introspective, evocative, atmospheric, nuanced—these are just a few words you could use to describe Henry Green’s latest album, Familiarity, out now. A master in blending ambient electronic music with soulful songwriting, the artist is finally launching his much-awaited third album, an eleven-track record that he’s cooked slowly but surely in his home studio in the countryside.
The journey to get here has been long, but we’ve finally arrived. For almost a year, Green has been teasing fans with singles like Outside (already amassing over a million streams on Spotify), Sun/Shade, Uyuni or Isla, and this past weekend, we got the entire LP. Actually, seven out of the eleven songs were out already, so listening to all of them together felt, like the title says, familiar. We had been soft dancing to Swim and Outside for months, watching sunsets this summer with Sun/Shade as the backdrop, daydreaming with Isla or trying to learn the lyrics to Final Form, where Green collaborated with Colouring.
Right upon listening, Dawning instantly draws listeners in with its softness and delicacy. It was clever for Green to choose an opening song that we hadn’t heard yet as to catch our attention and keep us hooked. With a dreamy production and intimate vocals, it goes right to the heart. Images is also a new one, so the attention and curiosity keeps growing for the listener. This one is a bit ‘louder’ than the previous one, more energetic (within the ambient scale, that is), and features a trumpet, a ‘strong’ instrument compared to the rest of the production. From here, we’re happily transported to these past months listening to his latest singles: Outside, Everything (featuring Carmody, the second collab in the album), Uyuni, Final Form, Isla, and Swim.
Right by the end, we’re again caught off guard by new songs like Fault Lines and Love Remains, the closing one. Sung by multiple voices, the one-minute-and-a-half song sounds almost like a lullaby, like a memory, unearthing some deep, warm feelings within us. Because in Familiarity, Henry Green explores themes of memory, connection, and self-discovery, wrapped in cocooning productions that accompany throughout the forty-two-minute experience that is listening to this beautiful album.
