Album Review: Charles Baby - The End Of The Terror Lights

The End Of The Terror Lights is concise, delicate and measured. It's a ten-track folk album split down the middle into side one and side two. The debut album from Melbourne's Charles Baby, it is full of slow builds and trimmings of violin alongside descending piano patterns.

Confessions is a standout track and evokes a sombre, poetic vision when Baby sings in unadorned yet passionate and almost a cappella tones, “When all my friends decide the way in which I'm going to die/They'll push me with their loving hands and I'll fall from such a great height”.

The record is mostly acoustic and down-tempo with only a drizzling of violin and double bass, which means there is an extra emphasis on the melodies and the lyrics. Baby has reached an almost Paul Kelly type level of storytelling and with his broad Aussie accent and well-articulated phrases, he's inviting listeners to fully engage with his carefully crafted words. There is a youthfulness to his crooning and he produces some hauntingly beautiful images like, “Since you've left here… The birds all stayed inside their cage and the captain steered his ships away” from the surreal journey of We Don't Miss You.

The debut single, A Happy Affair is possibly the best on the record. With a rolling banjo riff, cheerful whistling and a bit of piano accordion, it has a light-hearted vibe and a perfect falsetto chorus that stands in striking contrast to the deceitful relationship breakdown within the storyline.

Sometimes this apocalyptic collection of heartbreak is smothering but most of the time it's the perfect balance of tragedy and beauty and the artistry that's gone into the lyrics mark Charles Baby as an intricate and genuine wordsmith.