On his latest (ninth!) album ‘Parader’, Keaton Henson turns the guitars up but still doesn’t hide away from personal issues and ‘what it feels like to be this age and a musician’….

There’s a slow, smoky and atmospheric build-up on album opener ‘Don’t I Just’, a song that finds Keaton asking a number of rhetorical questions in typically wry, self-depreciating style: ‘Don’t I just let you down?’; ‘Don’t I just know how to fuck things up?’; ‘Don’t I just let the side down? Don’t I just make a mess?’. ‘Insomnia’ follows with a mix of swirly shoegaze guitars and Jeff Buckley-esque raw emotion. There’s more of a rollocking indie-rock sound on Lazy Magician, which features guest vocals from Ratboys’ Julia Steiner: ‘I can even make myself disappear’.

‘Conversation Coach’ has a touch of Mew-style loveliness in its glacial sound as Keaton looks out for others: ‘Look at all the other people who can’t say what they need’. ‘Furl’ (featuring Danielle Fricke) has a sparse yet powerful sound – ‘I held you once’ – while ‘Operator’ finds Keaton embracing a slackerpop, riff-heavy sound. ‘Tell Me So’ heads back into the quieter, more acoustic-based sound, with plenty of melancholy on show: ‘I will be the love that’s left behind. I will be somebody else’.

‘Tourniquet’ has Keaton promising to always be there for his loved ones – ‘no one can wait like I do’ – and ‘Day inn New York’ is another touching ode to someone who moves to the big city to make something of their life, while Keaton considers his own life choice: ‘At home I spend most of my time stealing songs from the voice in my mind’; ‘I’m afraid I might waste my time trying to be just fine’.

The closing ‘Performer’ reminded us of Radiohead’s ‘Let Down’ with its pulsating yet emotional intro and lyrics teemed in sadness: ‘I get sick so I build out of sticks what I should out of stone and it falls around me’.

‘Bigger, louder and rasher’ than anything he’s released before, ‘Parader’ is Keaton Henson at his most confident and bold.