2016's
Midnight Sun
saw the Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist
Christopher Duncan
, better known by the stage name
C Duncan
, expanding on the lush bedroom pop of his Mercury Prize-nominated debut with something a bit more grandiose. Working for the first time with an outside producer --
Elbow
's
Craig Potter
-- as well as other engineers and musicians,
Duncan
continues to push forward on 2019's
Health
, pairing the spectral melodies and lush harmonies of past outings with club-ready beats and flourishes of snappy R&B. More sophisti-pop than indie pop, the 12-song set is
's most diverse to date, with
ABBA
-leaning post-disco confections like "Holiday Home" and "Impossible" elbowing up against surreal,
Lynch
-ian slow jams ("Wrong Side of the Door") and incorporeal waltzes ("Care").
's voice is a marvel of control and expression throughout, able to clone itself in a plume of
Enya
-worthy layers or to simply soar off into the inky blue via a buoyant tenor. The cavernous reverb that dominated his early work has been tightened up, resulting in moments that are as punchy and bright as they are sumptuous -- the velvety title track and the late-album gem "Pulse & Rain" deliver both predilections in spades. The brooding, hymn-like closer, "Care," and the resplendent coming-out anthem "He Came from the Sun" hew closer to the sonic intimacy that was generated on 2015's
Architect
, but even they feel larger than life, signaling not so much a stylistic shift for
, but a maturation of his ability to build worlds out of sound, and in his overall confidence as well. ~ James Christopher Monger