ALBUM REVIEW: Richard Skelton – These Charms May Be Sung Over a Wound

Phantom Limb

Released: 25.09.20

Driven to create by tragedy, Richard Skelton has maintained a staggering quality (and quantity) of work over the years and this latest is among his best. The drift from acoustic to electric seems complete and the album’s nine tracks are more industrial than rustic, with more in common with artists like Stars Of The Lid than before.

But Skelton’s music is as immersive and melancholy as ever. For An Inward Wound balances on a deep mechanical throb, while Against Bite & Rend Of Snake buries a looping sadness under scree and scurf and For Either Deadened Or Undeadened plays out a sequence of pure sweet heartbreak across nine swelling and fading minutes. Surely the most affecting minimal/drone album of the year. Utterly beautiful.