Seemingly every picture of David Stith, an outrageously talented young man from Buffalo, New York, is of him looking decidedly dejected with life.

This Romantic desolation was expressed quite beautifully on his EP of last year, and indeed his colossally ambitious debut LP is a continuation of this. He makes truly luscious sounds.

Layers upon layers of strings combine with neatly plucked acoustic guitar, always in a shimmering minor key. Despite it being almost its opposite in terms of production, the same sparse vibe that adorned Bon Iver’s record is present here. Heavy Ghost, however, is soft and delicate and ghostly. Realism this is not.

Obvious comparisons in recent times would be Andrew Bird and Patrick Watson, but to make that link is to reveal Stith’s limitations. In concentrating on one mood, Heavy Ghost comes across as slightly inaccessible, and inhuman almost. The occasional burst of sunshine that characterises Bird would have made a difference to this very very earnest, if very very lovely, piece of work.

Barnaby Smith