Amsterdam-based singer songwriter Will Knox releases poignant fourth album, English Silence.
By Graeme Smith
Will’s music has been featuring on these pages since around this time last year, first grabbing our attention through his healing track and video, Instant Coffee. This year, we’ve shared his singles Growing Pains and Pillow Scream. All three tracks are included on his new album.
English Silence takes us on a deeply personal story for Will. He started writing it during lockdown, a time where many of us started to confront the uncomfortable truths in our lives and how they impact our mental health. At the time, he had learned that he would become a father for the first time, and he was determined not to let his own issues pass down to his child.
A sense of intimacy and vulnerability is infused in each of the album’s eleven tracks, starting with the aforementioned Instant Coffee. Will has the ability to bring emotion to life through devastatingly descriptive lyrics, and has a folksy sound that’s reminiscent of Bear’s Den.
Leave The Light On is driving and meditative while Twentysomething ups the tempo and drama. Body Talk provides an early highlight, best capturing the poignancy of the album’s story. Originally written with Belgian artist Emma Bale, it explores how words aren’t always the best form of communication through a beautifully tactile composition. Keep an eye on these pages next month for an acoustic version of the track performed with York Calling favourite néomí.
A gentle, reflective middle gives us Growing Pains, the melancholic Trauma Queen, the hypnotising London From My Window Seat, and delicate Christmas Song which also features néomí. Things then build to a crescendo in the album’s trio of ending tracks, with Pillow Scream nestled between the reluctantly optimistic What Goes Around and the beautiful ode to Will’s child Welcome To The World.
English Silence was recorded in London with producer Ian Grimble. It’s out now, available to buy on limited edition vinyl. You can give it a listen below.
