What does Songs for June sound like?

Simple, honest and direct acoustic singer-songwriter vulnerability.

The review of ‘Bring me back home’ by Songs for June

Sometimes a musician and a release can land in your lap and strike you down with its direct approach. Belgian singer-songwriter Elvy Jean has a knack for writing disarmingly honest and vulnerable songs. He channels this into Songs for June, an artistic project that lets him explore a stripped-down approach to music.

‘Bring me back home’ is a home recorded album. It is warm, homely and rustic. You can hear the room noise and the acoustic guitar which backs Elvy’s voice throughout has no bells or whistles with its production. Instead, other instruments such as a bass or a soft organ, piano or synth gently fill out the sound. At its core is a man and his acoustic guitar singing about his emotions and feeling unmoored from the world around him. They are like demos+ but it sells the setting really well.

Some tracks are more folksy such as the title track or ‘Don’t shake me, I’m full of tears’. They have movement and dynamism as although they are soft ballads, the guitar moves at pace. The finger-picking of ‘Transhumance’ and its rustic barnyard in summer sound is beautifully put together. The dusty slow paced small town plinky-ponk of ‘Wandering’ evokes a playful childlike wonder too. Throughout the album, there is an essence of innocence that makes you want to hug the song better.

Some songs don’t always land fully. The rootsy ‘Exodus’ is largely instrumental until a falsetto Elvy comes in for a big finale that sounds more strained than emotive. ‘Prayer’ suffers the same issue, where a quivering whimper of a voice crosses over into atonal. As the song picks up, the vocal strengths and Elvy hits all the right emotional and musical notes making it an understated finale to the album. There is also a gospel track ‘After all these years’ where the vocals are mumbled atonally for dramatic effect. In all of these cases, I felt they were stylistically off-key on purpose but it didn’t gel for me. Your mileage may vary.

That said, when it works, the album nails the vulnerable acoustic songwriter feeling sad and lonely vibe perfectly. There are some real gems here to undercover if you like the sad and whimsy roots folk sound. Songs for June may not be all summer and flowers after all…

Recommended track: Don’t shake me, I’m full of tears

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