Relict

Night is falling, silence is rising and the only romance left in your life is the possibly deluded notion that new romance is only a well-timed turn of the corner away. The Relict’s Innes Phillips — a former member of the similarly twilit Clientele — has written exclusively about such dusk-to-dawn sentiments since 1999, but Tomorrow is Again is his long-playing debut. Featuring a guest cast of sympathetically lovesick vocalists, including Alasdair Maclean (the Clientele), Lupe Nunez-Fernandez (Pipas) and Pam Berry (the Pines), these dozen sparsely woven songs initially slip past in a near-imperceptible 33 minutes. Only after you find yourself returning to distractedly play the spectral tearjerkers "Held in Glass” and "Darling I Know” again and again do you realise this modest record’s entirely immodest gravitational pull. Like the home-recorded tape hiss that provides its constant, subliminal ambience, Tomorrow is Again is a loyal comfort even when you forget it’s there.