Luke Sital-Singh - The Fire Inside [2014][EAC/FLAC]

01. Nothing Stays the Same (04:13)
02. Greatest Lovers (04:12)
03. Bottled Up Tight (03:20)
04. 21st Century Heartbeat (03:25)
05. Lilywhite (03:34)
06. Nearly Morning (04:32)
07. I Have Been a Fire (04:03)
08. Everything Is Making You (03:16)
09. Fail For You (04:16)
10. We Don't Belong (03:52)
11. Cornerstone (03:58)
12. Benediction (03:39)

As old lyrical chestnuts go, being held captive by "the fire inside" is as mundane as "making it through the rain", leading to low expectations of this debut. Yet Luke Sital-Singh, who was longlisted in the Sound of 2014 poll, has produced a record that defies its unpromising title. The Surrey singer-guitarist perches halfway between Tom Odell's softly-softly balladeering and Justin Vernon's heart-scraping orchestral folk: he's harrowing in his intensity, but writes crooning melodies that make the bitterest songs slip down smoothly. Saying that, The Fire Inside's main attribute isn't its lyrics, which are marinated in teen-poet philosophising ("It's all right to let your guard down/ Get your heart pounded/ We all bleed, we all breathe," is the chorus to Nothing Stays the Same – otherwise a strikingly emotional song in the mould of Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter). It compensates in other areas, however: Sital-Singh is believably vulnerable on the misty lowlands of Fail for You, and on Benediction stakes out particularly anguished piano-dominated territory – a style he should develop