JUSTIN SULLIVAN
SURROUNDED
EARMUSIC
Eighteen years after his first solo outing, the New Model Army frontman dials down his day job’s volume but not his convictions, with Coming With Me’s hushed acoustics threatening – but tensely withholding – familiar ferocity, and Amundsen confronting English mythmaking habits. More expansive arrangements benefit the unexpectedly pretty Sea Again and mournful closer Surrounded, but only a paper’s width separates him and Nick Cave on songs like Clean Horizon, while Sao Paulo brings Leonard Cohen to life.