Bill Fay took four decades to follow up his eponymous debut and 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution with 2012’s acclaimed Life Is People. In the meantime, his work was championed by the likes of Wilco and Nick Cave. Fay is now in his 70s, and his beautifully hymnal fourth studio album contains sublime, heartfelt ruminations on nature and the world from someone who knows his time is running out. The stunning War Machine quietly but angrily compares humanity with a bird of prey – “We all kill in ways that he doesn’t, as we pay our taxes to the war machine” – although Order of the Day channels antiwar sentiments to more positive, uplifting effect. Throughout, the Londoner’s craft and enduring fascination with music itself is rather humbling. “There’s a melody at the heart of me,” he sings in the lovely How Little. The album’s title asks an eternal question: if music is a gift, “who is the sender? I want to say, ‘Thank you.’”
