Quite possibly avant-folky
Richard Youngs
' most accessible release,
May
is a startlingly focused work, both meditative and hypnotic in its stark ruminations on a select few acoustic guitar and lyrical phrases. Richly expressive while working with an economy of words and sounds,
Youngs
is more concise and altogether less meandering on this outing than on the majority of his previous releases, with his guitar work always impressively fluid and his songwriting imbued with a deep sense of wonder. Halfway between the
traditional English folk
of
Nic Jones
and
avant-garde
guitar styles of
John Fahey
, the album's beauty is difficult to pinpoint but is intuitively understood, with all the right elements adding up to make a singularly poignant marriage of simple melody and lyric. ~ Matt Fink