Album Review: Sean Heathcliff - A Boy And His Rose

15 March 2017 | 4:48 pm | Ross Clelland

"An artist finding his own voice."

The former Snakadaktal singer, who operated under the Kagu banner for a time, reverts to his own rockstar-perfect name for five tracks of perhaps surprisingly personal songwriting.

These are songs of various moods reflecting over a relationship gone: Coco Shaded Eyes goes with the simple, but still puzzled, realisation that "She's not here...". There's modern man-and-machine pop like Ordinary, but when he switches to the mostly quieter acoustic centrepiece Hunter, the crack in his voice is more human. As a layer of choir kicks in behind this "Sailor lost himself to the sea..." you find an utterly crafted pop construction, and an artist finding his own voice.