Heartbreak and heartmake for the newly solo singer songwriter of black midi fame.

No review of any of Picton's solo work is going to be able to sidestep the fact that he was a part of black midi. This is because, evidently, black midi was a band at a creative crossroads, pulling in different directions long before the split. More than any comparable band, you can hear the differences between songs like ‘Speedway’ (on black midi's debut) and songs like ‘Western.’ Right up to their breakup, the split was very noticeable; Picton veering into plucked-acoustic territory, and Greep salsa-ing up the songs with bravado and melancholia. So it makes sense that Picton would want to have an all-acoustic album, a stylistic simplicity compared to the studio maximalism that Greep prefers.

What makes less sense is the nature of the divorce — it appears that Greep has made away with a smattering of touring musicians & fully-composed songs, whereas Picton set himself the rule of "no musicians who've played on black midi tracks". Clearly, one has benefitted from this partnership more than the other. However, Picton "immediately breaks both these rules" on track one, so consider that mindset of moderation when heading into this album. It's not trying to be perfect, it's trying to be itself — not bound by a self-negating set of rules, but something much more interesting to listen to! The actual meat of the album is much more interesting than trying to figure out what it isn't.

The album begins with ‘Target Practice,’ which is a very simple look at what we're gonna get throughout the album — plinky guitar, twirly orchestration, stop-start rhythms, and the occasional spike of strangeness: "You took, took, took", has an amazing moment when the very quiet tune suddenly breaks into full-blown clipping. The song ends the same way, throwing us into ‘In The Blink Of An Eye,’ which continues the album's themes of loss and transience.

‘Heart Of Darkness’ is a multi-part epic, the end of which conjures up its eponymic novel through a slow, plucked melody. The song veers about, touching on all of the basic modes of expression that this album has, the assonant & smooth vs. the dissonant & plucked. My only complaints are that the scene transitions are a little disjointed, especially when some of the songs on this album slam seamlessly into each other.

‘Love Story’ is a positively soppy ballad about love with a truly mesmerising orchestral section in the middle, which drops out to give a late-era Talk Talk leafy instrumental clatter, before recombining back into Picton's poetry and melody. He's a really excellent singer, and definitely wasn't showcased to his fullest under the standard black midi song structure. His voice is delicate but incisive, his poetry about kitchen lovers and making up words to songs is sweet but can very easily reveal an edge, something that says "I've been burned before, but that makes me better."

‘Pearls’ and ‘Opposite Teacher’ are solid, if not a tiny bit simple compared to other songs, but still undeniably pretty. ‘Actress’ is where things become more substantial — Picton says it's "the most edited song on the record". It shows, it's much more smooth, it builds up and backs down rather than staccato-pulsing throughout. I think the ending is a little slow, but that could be a matter of taste, the tiny needle crackle at the end is very poignant and assuredly earned after over 8 minutes.

‘One Night’ is the album's closer, and it feels very similar to the non-album single Numerology (which was allegedly also called One Night), it closes off the album gently, and is just a good cap to the whole thing.

My New Band Believe is a very well put together album, with plenty of interesting moments to propel it past Picton's previous output. An excellent look into heartbreak, and the gentle heart-re-make that new connections forge — both on an album-lyrical level and a meta-level, since this whole album is obviously Picton's chance to make new connections, to go beyond the Windmill — though that didn't stop him from quoting Jockstrap on ‘Love Story’ or consulting with Dos Monos about the title of ‘Opposite Teacher.’