Kristian Phillip Valentino takes his sound in a darker direction for raw and visceral new EP, The Sun Is Setting.

By Graeme Smith

An American singer songwriter, Kristian has been featuring on this blog since 2021 and we’ve shared a few of his tracks before. He’s now back with his latest EP, The Sun Is Setting. For fans of Justin Townes Earle and Townes Van Zandt, it’s an emotional four-track EP which picks up where Kristian left off – with strong storytelling and plenty of rawness in his compositions.

As Kristian puts it, the EP “has a darker sound … than previous releases” with him “facing personal demons that [he’d] been battling for many years.” This is typified by Still Your Boy, a song about losing his father and regret of not repairing their relationship before he passed. It’s perhaps the record’s rawest moment, with a stripped-back instrumental and plenty of stinging lyrics about generational trauma.

Before we get to it, Convince You kicks off the EP. We get an immediate taste of Kristian’s compelling, vulnerable vocal as they deliver visceral lyrics that are full of storytelling. The dark edge that he mentions is there from the start of the EP as he grapples with loss and heartbreak.

Evil of this World expands things, drawing on fairy-tale metaphor to tell an emotional story against a background of country folk. Naked then completes the EP on a more philosophical footing, finding an ounce of peace among the pain.

With his new EP, Kristian is really laying it all out there, giving us plenty of autobiographical detail and relatable emotion. He proves his ability to craft a story with his lyrics, and deliver it powerfully, creating atmosphere with just an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and some reverb.

The Sun Is Setting is out now, available to buy as a CD and download. You can give it a listen below.