I imagine Julian Pitt (aka Armstrong) as enigmatic. He may well not be. He may well be a completely open book, living his life with fragrant exuberance, telling everyone about his life / musical achievement and travails with the energy of a long lost friend…

…However, that would not suit my mind, as that would not suit an integral essence of his music. For whenever you listen to an Armstrong track / album there is a feeling that you are being engulfed by an intensely personal introspection and deliberation, that is allowing you a temporary sojourn into his confidence. It is a beautiful, subtle emotionality.

Initially, such an aesthetic is created by subtle shifts of tempos that are coursed through a luscious, stripped back sophisti-pop that is free from extravangance but imbued with stunning pop flourishes and an acute appreciation of what every note adds to the holistic.

Initially, mid tempo tracks such as Disinformation, When We Were Young, Happy Someone and Rock Star Rock Star feel like the cherry-picked amalgamation of the best parts of Grant McLennan, Prefab Sprout and Aztec Camera. All smooth, rounded melodies, that invite tapping feet to the gorgeous rhythms and comparisons to everything that was so wonderful about the best of mid 80s guitar-pop.

However, the very best of the album is seen in Songbird, Eyes Open Wide and In A Memory. All these track reside in luxurious, sub mid-tempos, where the reduction of intensity enables Pitts’, slightly quivering, slightly imperfect vocal delivery, to resonate with ‘everyman’ emotion. This is Armstrong at his best and most unique, where his sound does not easily fit into the obvious comparisons, that amateur music hacks like me seem to want to force into every explanation. In this case I can’t and would never want to.

There is always a feeling after every Armstrong release, that this could be his last Again maybe this is the whole enigmatic persona I have created for him? However, much of the beauty of his music is that there is the essence that he releases music for his own pleasure or innate need and not ours (again that temporary invite into his confidence) and with that there is always the danger that he might not need ‘us’ anymore…Let’s hope not, as this is truly one of the great unsung acts of our recent times.

Grab yourself a copy of the CD from The Beautiful Music (here) or Country Mile Records (here), before they are all gone !!!

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