John Smith broods off this album’s cover art like a bearded hipster newcomer, despite years of dedicated service to folk. A celebrated guitarist, he’s played on the Watersons’ Bright Phoebus tour, dedicated this record to his late mentor, Pentangle’s John Renbourn, and he’s about to play on Joan Baez’s new LP. Headlong, however, dwells far from that world. A simmering 10-track exercise in husky pop-Americana – think Mumford & Sons with more trouble creasing on its brow – it features tortured men who won’t “confess to Jesus because I never did a single thing to him” (Undone), fight “the wrong man in the wrong bar” (Joanna), and relax in perkier, David Gray-like compositions like Living in Disgrace (“it beats living alone”). It’s all lushly produced, accessible stuff, but one fewer men sinking into a downbeat persona, rather than a fuller personality, would be welcome.
