Michael Crean is a London-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who has just caught my attention through his soon to be released new album. With a sound that combines folk, experimentation and spoken word, I knew I had to share it. It’s called Songs To The Sea.

By Graeme Smith

Feature photo by Erika Sviderskyte / Jack Tuffney

As you might guess from its title, Song To The Sea is a concept album that explores the story of the sea, how it relates to all our lives, and how it relates to Michael’s life in particular, though he is quick to point out that the story is fictional.

It opens with The Water, a spoken word meditation that slowly builds with ambient sounds before reaching a cacophonous, cinematic climax that bleeds organically into track two Drift. An emotional masterpiece, the lyrics hit hard with their raw honesty, beautifully delivered through Michael’s expressive vocals and against an experimental pop-rock backdrop. Two tracks in and I already know that this album is something special.

Fragments is a gentler piece, leaning more into the folk end of Michael’s musical spectrum. It doesn’t lose any of the experimentation though, and the lyrics are beautifully poetic. There’s a Bowie-esque quality to it. Just For Now starts slow and pensive, led by piano and wallowing in a sense of melancholic romance.

I Wake Up returns to spoken word and takes a stab at the ills of modern society. Silence is a pulsating, ambient piece of electronica with trip-hop influences. The Coast concludes the album’s story. Through all the emotional turmoil, it seems to find a moment of peace, though a bittersweet one with gentle piano and macabre poetry.

Michael’s Crean’s Songs To The Sea is an early contender for album of the year for me. It’s beautifully rendered, captivatingly emotional and unlike anything I’ve heard before The album will be available of Friday 27 January in all the usual places. If you’re in London, you can celebrate its launch at Colour in Hoxton on 9 February.