ALBUM REVIEW: Sondre Lerche – Patience

PLZ

Released: 05.06.20

Eight albums in (and still in his thirties!) has seen Sondre Lerche straddle a fairly eclectic range of rock and pop tropes, influenced by the likes of Prefab Sprout and the Beach Boys and initially with quite a folky bent, later works, particularly the expansive art-rock of 2014’s Please have taken a much more widescreen approach.

Patience is a realisation of the baroque-pop that has peppered Lerche’s work for the duration of his career. Magnetic Fields and Rufus Wainwright are obvious reference points (Why Did I Write The Book Of Love feels like pastiche of the former). For the most part the record is glacial and glamorous, but there is a sickly syrupiness on the periphery, the same kind the blights Wainwright’s work. The Dirty Projectors-esque That’s All There Is is a highlight, but the real takeaway is that Lerche is at his best when things are kept (relatively) simple as the open-hearted vulnerability of Why Would I Let You Go? demonstrates.