When Your This, This In Love

John Southworth lives in language. He reclines languorously in words, arranging them with a masters grace into curious odes and poignant, often pithy observations that are a delight even without his correspondingly smart music. The English-Canadian singer/songwriter has been releasing albums since the late 90s, building an elegant catalog of songs sprung from folk music, vaudeville, jazz, chamber pop, rock, chanson, and places in between. Some releases have favored one direction over another, but 2023s When Youre This, This in Love plays almost like a Southworth anthology, somehow distilling a careers worth of essence into 12 wondrous tracks. From the litany of fictional and historical characters (Willy Wonka, Giacomo Casanova, Martin Luther King) that march through "Heroes of Eros" to the spectral laments of "Vertigo," the singer leans into his material like a veteran stage actor. That Southworth would devote one of his best songs to eulogizing Tiny Tim ("the Johnny Rotten of folk-rock"), nearly a quarter century after the singers death, makes a certain amount of sense. Like Tim, Southworth is an eccentric with a deep love of art forms from another age. He knows his place is in the margins and celebrates it with the ephemeral slow-pop jewel "Down in the Under," singing "in the underground, with the overproud, Im paid to rest." Vocally, Southworth seems to be aging into a hybrid of late-period Leonard Cohen and Nick Lowe, his hushed voice dipping into dry note-less valleys, then nimbly back up, almost chewing the words. The music is impeccably recorded, with an organic hi-fi richness and understated arrangements that allow the songs to serve themselves. With a discography as deep as Southworths, its remarkable that he can still produce at such a high level, but this may be his best album yet. ~ Timothy Monger