For those unfamiliar with his work, Keaton Henson is an English folk-rock musician and poet, whose work incorporates a range of influences from contemporary to classical.
His work is also intensely performative, despite Keaton’s famously intense anxiety that has, for much of his career, precluded him from live performance. From an early age, Keaton learned to “gild the domestic cage” of his introspective world with “images and songs and poems of his imagined worlds” – not to mention music.
Keaton’s eagerly-awaited new album Kindly Now will be released this Friday September 16, and to gain an insight into the music that’s shaped his own as he’s battled with isolation, we’ve asked Keaton to let us in on six albums that changed his life.
Randy Newman – Little Criminals
My hero, the unfailing underdog. He is the reason I write songs. I strive to be nearly as honest and even halfway as brave.
His albums last forever to me, each song is a complex character you can spend years trying to understand.
“It’s starting to rain… papa we’ll go sailing”
Simon and Garfunkel – Sounds Of Silence
The first time I realised songs could be poetry in their own right. You can read most of Paul Simon’s lyrics dry, which is very rare. Through all the angsty phases of my intermittent youth this record remained constant and surprising. It’s quite literally always welcome.
“And as I watch the drops of rain/weave their weary paths and die/I know that I am like the rain/there but for the grace of you go I”
Elliot Smith – XO
I imagine people would assume that this would be on my list. But I really couldn’t care less. He was brilliance. He made myself and a lot of teenagers like me at the time feel like a ‘loser like us’ had snuck into the real world. He spoke for us and I’ve seen first-hand the hole he left in the world.
“I’m never gonna know you now. But I’m gonna love you you anyhow”
Jeff Buckley – Grace
The fact this is an obvious selection and probably on most people’s list of the same theme is a testament to how incredible it actually is. His is one of very few voices that appear in the world and will never come again.
“Will I ever learn…oh lover you should’ve come over”
Arvo Pärt – Summa
The crowned king of silence. To me he’s the greatest composer alive. Pärt taught me to let be. The complexity of his making so little so powerful is literally and will always be a total mystery to me.
Edward Elgar – Cello Concerto in E minor Op.85
I hope this counts as an album (different times call for different titles surely?). Elgar sounds like home to me. And this piece sounds like someone’s broken in. He among others taught me the power of one simple melody, and how to use it like a weapon to be fired when ready and not before.
