Attic Faith

Emmett Tinley doesn’t do ‘immediate’. His songs never, ever grab you on first listen: sometimes they even seem a bit pedestrian.

But give it five or six hearings, and something mysterious happens. Some sort of magical osmosis sees Tinley’s songs transformed into the most glorious, heartfelt paeans to loves lost, loves left behind and loves that never really existed in the first place except in your wildest imaginings. I don’t know how he does it, but the songs’ emotive tendrils snake their way around your heart without your even realising that it’s happening, until you find yourself moved almost to tears by the sheer beauty of that voice, singing those words.

This album from the former Prayer Boat frontman has been in the bag for some time, but contractual difficulties delayed its release until now, when the good folks at Independent Records (home of fellow troubadors Josh Ritter and Mark Geary) stepped in and did the necessary to ensure Tinley’s debut solo release finally makes its way onto the shelves. And music fans throughout the country should rejoice that they did, as Attic Faith is one of the most stunningly beautiful albums you’re likely to hear all year, from the swooping ‘I Want You’ to the breath-stopping ‘Come To Life’, an old favourite from The Prayer Boat days.

I wouldn’t recommend listening to many of these 10 songs too intently if you’re not feeling particularly chipper, however. There’s very little in the way of boy-meets-girl-and-lives-happily-ever-after here. Song titles like ‘Heart Still Breaking’, ‘Amsterdam Weeps’ and ‘Killing The One I Love’ will give you some indication as to the emotional terrain we’re traversing. If, as has been suggested, Tinley has the voice of an angel, then his are the tonsils of a cherub who’s been through the torture of a thousand lifetimes of unrequited love. Even when he seems to have found his ideal life partner, on ‘Comfort Me’, his nagging self-doubt drags him back into the doldrums of melancholy.

While it may not be the ideal gift for your best mate who has just broken up with his or her other half after a decade together, Attic Faith is a gorgeously fragile, deliciously delicate album to make you fall in love with sad songs again, an album to wallow in for hours at a time and an album to soften the heart of even a cynical, scarred and scorned music hack. Misery, after all, loves company.