The Little Unsaid (aka John Elliott) last graced these pages in July with Lick The Future’s Lips, a studio release that seemed to tick all the right boxes for our reviewer Mike Davies who concludes his review:
An album of variegated musical moods and songs that peer into the gloom but also spark a flicker of light in the potential to rise up and change both the world and ourselves, balancing the musically contemplative with the urge to stomp your feet, it’s their most accessible release yet, so pucker up and give it a great big smooch.
The last 12 months have been hugely creative for John, who, alongside the releasing and touring Lick The Future’s Lips, has also starred in Cruise on the West End. He has also written and recorded ‘December Songs’ entirely on his own in London during winter lockdown 2020.
The project started as a defiant way to make music in the face of lockdowns, cancelled studio sessions, and the impending uncertainty of not seeing loved ones at Christmas time.
The Little Unsaid’s John Elliott borrowed an old guitar and mandolin from a neighbour, set up two microphones in the corner of his flat in South London, and recorded the basis of the album live in just a few days. Working mostly at night, the necessity of not waking the neighbours gave the album its hushed and intimate dynamic.
Elliott says:
“I wanted to find simple songs that captured the melancholy of this time of year, but also the cosiness, the closeness, the joy of simple acoustic music in a dimly lit room, and the promise of a different kind of year ahead.”
On December 3rd, we will get to hear his intimate, seasonal solo release in full, but before then, enjoy the new lyric video for Ebb & Flow below. As we’ve said on these pages before, Elliott is a chronicler of very real and very difficult human emotions. Those chronicles are carefully and lovingly crafted before being released into the world, and Ebb & Flow is no exception – stunning in all its simplicity, stripped back, melancholic, yet warmed by beautiful harmonies, it stops you in your tracks.
You can pre-order December Songs from today via: www.thelittleunsaid.bandcamp.com
December Songs Tracklisting:
- Ebb & Flow (Yuletide!)
- Fine World (When You Can Look It In The Eye)
- Hermit’s Carol
- Sacred Space
- Home Video
- December Sun
- Family Tree
- In Dulci Jubilo *
- In The Bleak Midwinter *
- 5am Waltz
- Bodhi Tree
Written, Recorded & Produced by John Elliott except *
Pre-order December Songs today via: www.thelittleunsaid.bandcamp.com
For details of upcoming Tour Dates visit:
https://www.thelittleunsaid.com/live