Richard Neale - The Walls Fell (2026)

It's quite a story, while getting to write this piece, I thought of starting with saying that I hadn't heard such delicate vocals and music in a while but I checked my post on Richard Neale's 2017 album EVES and realized that it's EXACTLY what I wrote back then. And it's been almost a decade (sic!). This year, the dreamy and folky singer/songwriter from UK came back with his first longer album since... exactly 2017.

"Delicate" is an adjective you need to repeat over and over again when writing about The Walls Fell. I can hear this music as singer/songwriter acoustic guitar lyrical solo venture or a folky, nature-centred, forest-longing cry for escape, but ultimately it is all overshadowed by the utterly oneiric atmosphere that rules single-handedly on the album from the start to the final notes. The piano-based but very often built over with a range of other instruments compositions sound like coming from a dense fog in an English countryside in an early morning. And the vocals that join them are just... yes, delicate of course. Always but sometimes even more than that (King Blue!).

The album certainly feels like work of one man, although there are vocals by Karen Stally in some tracks too. But while usually I prefer a team effort in creating music, this time, it's just perfect. It gives me David Bramwell's Oddfellow's Casino (also south of England!) vibes, but even more foggy and sleepy. Love it.

The Walls Fell costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: King Blue

Country: UK

Genre: folky ambient pop

Richard Neale - EVES (2017)

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Richard Neale - EVES (2017) EN

With his new album, Richard Neale, an artist from the southern England, opens up a coffer of condensed sadness and beauty. Seven tracks melting souls with delicate keys and dreampop compositions with surprising, otherworldly backing chorals.

I haven't heard a more delicate vocal in a while. Neale's voice sounds like a velvet veil - airy and extremely sad. In "Somewhere in the Dead of Night" it is accompanied by backing vocals sounding like a choir of dreamy sleepwalkers that in "Young Adult" reaches the almost heavenly spheres. The contrast between the sound of choir and the whispering, or maybe recited, vocal parts is what makes the biggest impact on the audience.

The album was created as a playlist of improvised piano pieces that evolved into a mixture of "whispered folk, choral, ambient, post rock and subtle electronics.". It is absolutely right 0 the neoclassical piano, sounds of glockenspiel and ambient backgrounds are our company throughout the whole album and they are joined by, sometimes quite harsh, guitars ("Wave of Indifference").

"Eves" is available for pay what you want.

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Richard Neale - EVES (2017) PL

Richard Neale, artysta z południowej Anglii, otwiera swoją nową płytą szkatułę skondensowanego smutku i piękna. Siedem utworów roztapiających duszę delikatnymi klawiszami pianina i dreampopowymi aranżacjami zaskakującymi nieziemskimi chórami.

Dawno nie słyszałem delikatniejszego wokalu. Głos Neale'a brzmi jak aksamitna woalka - delikatny i przesmutny. W "Somewhere in the Dead of Night" towarzyszy mu chór niczym w czasie mszy rozmarzonych lunatyków, który w "Young Adult" przechodzi w sfery niemalże niebiańskie. Kontrast między brzmieniem chóru i szeptanymi, a czasem w zasadzie recytowanymi fragmentami wokalu jest tym, co robi największe wrażenie.

Album miał powstać jako zbiór improwizacji na pianinie, który wyewoluował w mieszankę "szeptanego folku, chórów, ambientu, post-rocku i subtelnej elektroniki". Wszystko się jak najbardziej zgadza - neoklasyczne pianino, dźwięki dzwonków i ambientowe tła są stałymi towarzyszami na płycie, a dołączają do nich miejscami nawet dość surowe dźwięki gitary ("Wave of Indifference").

"Eves" można mieć za płać ile chcesz.

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