Square One

It’s impossible to listen to David Kitt’s new album without realising that the boy Kitt is hopelessly, helplessly and blissfully in love. This sense of absolute contentment is all-pervading, from the opening bars of the intro (appropriately titled ‘I’m In Love’) to the simple guitar and vocals of final track, ‘Hold Me Close’. What is equally apparent is that young Master Kitt’s artistry is thriving on this rapture and we, the listeners, are the main beneficiaries. There’s absolutely no way you can listen to this record without ending up with a sloppy grin on your face: it’s just so goddamn joyous.

It also makes for the poppiest, catchiest music Kittser has produced to date, from the brass-laden, infectious ‘Got What I Need’ to the magnificent ‘Your Smiling Face’, which is surely the song to catapult the young Dubliner to worldwide adulation and international stardom.

‘Dance With You’ is so fragile, so delicate, that you expect Kittser to break down into tears at any moment: paradoxically, it’s probably his finest ever vocal performance. ‘Saturdays’ starts off filled to the brim with bittersweet melancholia and somehow mutates into a massive, epic, distorted instrumental of dischord and melody that I can see becoming my favourite song over the next couple of months.

Elsewhere, there’s the naïve innocence of ‘House With Trains’, the sweet electronica of ‘Tonic’, the summer breeze of ‘Long Long Stares’ and the countrified waltz of ‘Faster & Faster’. This is the most soul-baringly open that Kittser has ever been, as he relays the delight and fear of falling in love, and the result makes for his most instantly accessible and compelling release to date.

Square One is the absolute antithesis to something like Blood On The Tracks. While it won’t give you the get-up-and-go necessary for a Friday night on the batter, it’s the perfect album to wake up to. An early morning rather than late-night listen, it’s sticky-eyed with sleep as opposed to bleary-eyed with gargle.

A truly beautiful and affecting album filled with minor chords and major choruses, Square One washes you in a warm, fuzzy embrace that is impossible not to fall in love with.