Kirt Debique crafted his debut album, Things Left Unsaid, as a series of letters to parents and partners, siblings and strangers, its eight songs delve into themes of love, family, and loss. Although a divorce and some hard realizations incited the compositional process, the specifics of Things Left Unsaid took shape later on, after the Seattle resident could view his subject matter with perspective...

There's a confidence and a range of styles that drips through this album that make it hard to believe that this is Kirt Debique's debut album. This sounds like the well polished product of someone with plenty of years of experience under his belt.

The album is constructed to give it an overall story, but with each song having a specific concept. The genesis for each song was born out of a simple idea - such as a future version of Debique addressing his father ('Another Time'). He then constructed the vocals and piano melodies. 'Another Time' was one of my favourite tracks, and brought to mind a modern Morrissey-esque song.

This is an album that slowly sinks its teeth into you. Listen to it a couple of times and come back to it a few days later and you'll be surprised at how many of the songs have already lodged themselves in your mind.

Debique's vocal's are haunting, and dripping with confidence. This album contains 8 songs (24 min, 09 sec) - and that's my only real complaint; just how short this album is. I suppose we should be thankfully for what there is, but I could have easily listened to a lot more of Debique's wonderfully craft art form.

8

Nick Smithson