Carter Tanton

★★★★ Carter Tanton WESTERN VINYL. CD/DL/LP

Baltimore singer-songwriter finally follows early promise. Carter Tanton’s bio lists only one released bona fide solo record – 2016’s Jettison The

Valley – although this is actually the fourth under his own name. Once the singer for lost indie rockers Tulsa and sideman for War On Drugs and Marissa Nadler, the elusive Tanton considers his first two efforts false starts. This selftitled album, however, continues from where the Laurel Canyon stylings of

Jettison… left off. Neil Young’s Harvest still echoes through the acoustic guitar tracks, particularly the exquisite Steep Angles, which draws lines between Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, a Baltimore dirt bike gang and the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol, but there’s also a major reliance on piano ballads and heavily reverbed vocals. Haunting and obscured by a gauze-like haze, Carter Tanton is a tantalising album begging you to sit and spend some time with it, aching to be slowly picked apart.