This Sufjan Stevens-esque whisper from North Yorkshire comes and goes like a breeze through hallways. ‘Hard Work’ has a deceptive level of density, neatly placing all of itself inside a particular sound and never thinking to go beyond. Critically, that might be a problem, but the transience and orderliness works in favour of HLP’s lounging, laidback writing. Finishing this record elicits the feeling of waking up from a nap. It is not intending to change the wider course of your day: it’s a quiet, soft reset in a world of noise. Despite its ostensible limitations, ‘Hard Work’ transposes genuine meaning through its sparseness.
22/30
A favourite: ‘Drugs Are All Right’
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