For an artist who’s long served as one of indie-folk’s most reliable confessors, Keaton Henson sounds remarkably uncertain on ‘Parader’. But that gnawing feeling proves to be its greatest asset.
The title is instructive. Henson positions himself as a parader — someone processing through life with ceremonial purpose, displaying vulnerabilities like banners for all to witness. “Who in the hell is still listening?” he asks on Past It, breaking the fourth wall to wrestle with whether a decade-plus career justifies his continued soul-searching.
That interrogation finds its voice through the album’s textures. ‘Parader’ layers fuzzed-up distortion over jangly acoustics, anchored by swaggering Britpop percussion. The atmosphere recalls Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Punisher’, yet the vision remains unmistakably his own.
Songs are like living organisms: heartbeat percussion, restless guitars and dual harmonies — particularly the mellifluous vocals from Ratboys’ Julia Steiner on Lazy Magician — add depth.
When Operator erupts from delicate indie-folk into arena-sized distortion, or when Insomnia contorts itself into ‘90s grunge, these feel like natural evolutions rather than jarring pivots. The longest track, Furl, is a duet with Henson’s wife Danielle Fricke that drifts into liminal folktronica, occupying the space between Bridgers and Bon Iver. It’s haunting, though its subdued pacing momentarily eases the album’s propulsive grip.
Henson’s lyrics capture the push and pull between gratitude and guilt with devastating precision. Tourniquet frames his relationship as a bandage for self-doubt, while Day In New York finds him “stealing songs from the voice in my mind.” Both songs, and the album they find a home on, want to know whether love can survive when couples lead such anxious lives in the spotlight.
Closer Performer earns its catharsis because Henson refuses to take shortcuts. ‘Parader’ transforms self-doubt into artistic fuel — proof that questioning your purpose and proving it aren’t mutually exclusive. The procession continues, the banners still fly, and Henson still grows creatively.
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