SIMONE FELICE
All The Bright Coins CHRYSALIS
Loneliness of the long-distance troubadour
7/10
The fresh scar where his chest was carved open for life-saving heart surgery symbolised the death-defying fierceness of Simone Felice’s solo debut in 2010. But producing and writing for others eventually took over, and “Puppet”, a rare confessional of the grinding reality of the scuffling singer-songwriter, explains why. “Whatcha doing after the show?” an empty voice asks, after you “drag your sorrows out on display”. The passion of a precarious life lived by a gospel of poetry and rock’n’roll is, though, undimmed, in music of acoustic intimacy, helped by Kieran Hebden’s spectral guitars and the Webb Sisters’ choral harmonies. “All The Kings Of Earth”, one of four spoken-word songs, is a motel pandemic vision, the piano’s rueful pressure mounting, as Felice takes another American reckoning.