This is the sound of lost summers, dangling one foot in the waters where Midlake and Iron & Wine have spent time, another in the depths of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch, where folk guitar figures circle like whirlpools. Stratton is a 30-year-old Californian-born, New Jersey native with a story to summon myths: son of a travelling preacher and a cancer survivor, his music was found by Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde during a night-time online search. These 10 songs feel fittingly, consistently delicate and fawn-like, even when their lyrics bare teeth. This Is What We Do recalls Stratton’s time ill, with lines that snap out (“you’re caught with your neck being fit for a noose”). Ribbons warns of “circling crows” and “fire finally [engulfing] the rafters”. The mood throughout is of beauty rather than bite, slowly waking up to the world.
