As I write this review’s first draft, the skies above me in West Wales are as broody and threatening as the wonderful image on Brendan Perkins’ new release, Favourite Places. It must be said that I find almost permanent rain and cold intensely depressing but am glad to report that listening to this wonderful album from one of the country’s most talented multi-instrumentalist’s and writer brings a special warmth. For this album is extremely special, imbued with a spirit which instantly banishes any blues.

Favourite Places is scheduled for release on 18th May, and you can pre-order or grab a copy at https://brendanperkins.bandcamp.com/album/favourite-places To assist you in what is to my mind a critical purchase of 2024, the two releases made available are embedded with this review, both featuring the lovely and talented Helen Flunder on vocals.

So, off we go with Skylarks, which is one of two tracks released prior to the full album release and is embedded for you below. This bird is a staple of English countryside artistic lore but has, I am afraid, suffered a sharp decline in numbers the past fifty years. Its song is gorgeous, and this track sets the tone perfectly, with the old grand theorists setting out the ways of the natural world in a bucolic setting. From the outset, with gentle synths, a lush guitar, and a deep bassline, we are transported to that world, a track full of melody, feeling, and vocals which tell their tale succinctly. Perkins & Flunder produce some quite lovely harmonies when they sing the world of wonders. A pastoral delight of a song, something to be cherished. Simply drink in that guitar solo four minutes in.

A Song For Friends is, in the first instance, a spiritual wonder lyrically, and by that, I mean in the true sense, so applying equally to humanists and believers alike, a song of the beloved memory of friends and a love that never sleeps. When I hear the words in this, I instantly think of my late best man, Chris, and my best friend from the moment I moved to West Wales, Ceri, both leaving this world far too soon. I really like the guitar work on this, and I can only think listening to Perkins singing that this must be something cathartic, he remembering dear friends passed. What I must stress, though, is that this song is an uplifting one. It is not melancholic; it is not mournful. Rather, it is paying tribute in the truest tradition of English progressive rock, and the guitar playing is about as good as you will hear and the intensity and the love gets deeper and deeper as we move to the final passage, the choral noises building until giving way to a fitting bass underplaying the light jazz piano. A contender for track of the year on this website.

Petrichor Dance follows this, petrichor being the smell one encounters when rain falls on dry soil, especially after a storm, the song referencing singing at the lakeside. The orchestration is simply divine at the opening, and the track is a wonderful fusion of the classical and progressive worlds in the finest tradition of such music. Then, the thematic guitar takes the lead again, with a soft bass and keys underbelly, and a thoughtful passage ensues, the synths especially bringing a sense of gentle warmth before that guitar returns to take me to a different level again. If ever a guitar theme could be described as sensuous, then Perkins has produced it on this album. As a treat, we even get a hint of bluegrass as we close.

Lucy’s Lane is the second track released, and the official video with some stunning images is embedded below. It clearly tells a story of a place and events, where I know not, but the scene of markets being packed away, giving way to the coloured lights dancing in the bar serenading the day is one you can still find the length and breadth of our country, despite successive administrations worst efforts to destroy rural communities.

Chinley Churn is a hill in the Derbyshire Peak District. This instrumental is almost nine minutes long and is as pastoral as it is possible to get in your music, birdsong infusing the picture created of walking the hill which in summer is beautiful, but on which weather can close in sharply. The music creates a landscape, synths, and guitar expansive, a lovely chugging bass doing the hard climb. The guitar solo four minutes in takes this open scenario further again, and you picture yourself on that walk taking in everything of beauty this part of England (immortalised in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice as Elizabeth makes her fateful journey with her Aunt & Uncle) has to offer. A natural canvass upon which Perkins has painted his interpretation.

We close with The Funicular, those cable rail car systems on a steep slope, this one in a northern seaside town where carpe diem is the order of the moment, never to walk away. Immediately, a symphonic blast of noise greets the listener, and the keys especially bring a sense of the freshness of the coast and the memories of holidays and day trips of years gone past.

Favourite Places is a very special album. It is a work which simply makes one feel so good, uplifted, joining in a celebration of all that is good about our countryside at a time when the news is full of such bleak depression, and, as such, serves as a very important jolt to us to seize the goodness inherent in us and in life. It must appeal to those of you who admire, as I do, the work of Ant Phillips. Perkins can sing as well, something not many can accuse Ant of, and I say that with the greatest respect to a master musician.

Another essential album for 2024. Sheer and utter joy.