Springs Eternal＜限定盤/Eternal Blue Vinyl＞

After seemingly leaving behind his Mercury Prize-nominated moniker East India Youth as well as a series of ambient-leaning instrumental albums released under his own name (the latter were collected on Slowly Arranged: 2016-2019), William Doyle entered indie rock and art rock territory with Your Wilderness Revisited (2019) and the more experimental, part-instrumental Great Spans of Muddy Time (2021). Continuing along this path, his next album, Springs Eternal, is a more playful, song-oriented set, if one where the lighter tone proves to be more than a little ironic. The record was produced by Doyle with Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP) and includes contributions from downtempo electronic musician Alexander Painter, folktronica artist Genevieve Dawson, and primary Doyle influence Brian Eno. "Garden of the Morning" starts things off with an a cappella performance over birdcalls, dripping water, and other outdoor ambience before unison guitar and synth arpeggios join in. The songs textures gradually deepen with rumbling sustained bass and falsettoed vocal harmonies, as Doyles serious yet lyrical vocal performance poetically recounts the end of a love ("Heavens above opened up/Then made rust"). A Cuban-type programmed clave rhythm kicks off the next track, the grooving, noise-injected "Now in Motion," which continues to employ the records water theme, as does "Relentless Melt." While maintaining a catchy, tuneful through line sometimes reminiscent of artists like Peter Gabriel and Thomas Dolby, the album goes on to introduce songs like the melancholier "Castawayed" and the tense, staccato-pulsed "Cannot Unsee," which take on a more cautionary tone. (The latter song opens with the lines "This is not advisable/This is not a good idea.") However, Springs Eternals third act offers tracks like the lively sales pitch "Surrender Yourself" and closing acoustic ballad "Because of a Dream," which considers relenting with thoughts like "Nothing is sacred, nothing is real" and "What would proof do for us?" ~ Marcy Donelson