LESPECTRE
A STRAY, A DREAM, FORGIVENESS
Steve Harnell
DEAF ENDLING / BANDCAMP
★★★★☆
Bristol five-piece Lespectre have served up one of the best debuts of 2020 with this opening collection of finely-honed ethereal songcraft. Originally conceived back in 2018 as a songwriting project for guitarist/producer Tom Hackwell and drummer Max Perry, Lespectre soon reconfigured themselves as a full-band affair. It’s a move that pays off on an album that’s at times delicate and beatific, at others, bold and bristling. The somnambulant waltz of opener Sleep, While I rests on easy-going ticking beats and guitarist Gary Walker’s hazy, layered guitar FX.