This was the year in which the princes of the British folk scene put away the sprightly ditties of their first album and set about perfecting the art of the break-up album. In what is admittedly a crowded field, what marked out The First Days of Spring as an impeccable example of the genre was the unfailing honesty of Charlie Fink's songwriting. The break up in question – the end of Fink's relationship with fellow songwriter Laura Marling – had to some extent already been played out in public, and perhaps it was this that gave him the boldness to deliver such a warts-and-all account of his heartbreak.
The songs form a narrative that runs through the record, from the fraught end of their romance to sleeping with someone new and on to a kind of hopeful resolution. It makes for a rather cathartic song-cycle.
Musically it was a great stride forward from their debut, lushly-arranged and heavy on the strings. There were church bells and brass and orchestral interludes, while the deluxe edition even came with an accompanying film of the same name, written and directed by Fink. It could have been excruciating, but instead there was something exquisite about this record, its 11 songs seeming in possession of something rare and graceful and poised.
