Album Review: Unloved, Heartbreak

David Holmes’ latest project is a noir-ish retro collaboration, as Unloved, with singer Jade Vincent and producer Keith Ciancia.

The ghosts of confessional pop past hang heavy over Heartbreak – a dusky travelogue splicing the Instagram-pop quality of Lana Del Rey with Belfast-native Holmes’ sophisticated beats and peerless studio chops.

This really is the best sort of time-capsule – by turns a swirling collision of David Lynch and Phil Spector (the title track is crying out to be played at Twin Peaks’ Bang Bang Cafe) and Tarantino-esque vintage pop (‘Love’, ‘Bill’).

True, there is an element here of homage. But anyone who was thrilled by Unloved’s contributions to the soundtrack to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Killing Eve will already know that originality isn’t the only criterion by which great music should be judged. Building on the ethereal ache of Holmes’ 2008 Holy Pictures album and his movie score work for Steven Soderbergh, Unloved’s second album is an ever-unfurling mystery, at once a tapestry of faded glamour and a rollicking old-school rock fandango.