PEACE FOR OLD GHOSTS - THE LATE LIGHT
The Late Light is singer-songwriter Simon Shippey’s seventh release as cosmic folk entity Peace for Old Ghosts on Eyeless Records. Lockdown gave him time, as it has for so many other artists unable to work at their day jobs, to refine a group of songs originally written in 2019. For the listener aware of the personal tragedy that enshrouds his 2015 release Sideways And Downwards , the dominant emotional tone seems to be of acceptance: an embrace of time’s capacity to heal with a view towards self-reconstruction. ‘I’ve got to give myself a break/We all make mistakes ’ he sings on the title track. While The Late Light doesn’t have the earlier album’s thematic gravity (perhaps necessarily so), it’s a solid collection where Shippey continues to enhance his songcraft with a variegated sonic palette. ‘How Much Love’ could be a hit overground single with its Lloyd Cole/Elliot Smith vibes. ‘ Knowing where you are is a good place to start/Knowing your mind, knowing your heart/Knowing