Keaton Henson’s new release, Monument, is an album about loss, and dealing with losing the ones we love, but told, in incredibly candid detail, through the aspects of our lives that surround the trauma itself, about love, aging, recovery, life, seen through the prism of grief...

For an album that was born out of grief and trauma, Keaton Henson's Monument is surprisingly warm and welcoming. The opener 'Ambulance' is a slow, melancholic number that is tender and melodic. It's worlds apart, although just as engaging, as 2016's Kindly Now.

Monument is an album of songs about grief, and how it permeates our lives. Talking about the project, Keaton says: "I suppose it is, at its heart, much like my first record; a collection of things I wanted to say, just so they’re out of my system, and not necessarily for anyone else to hear. I made it at home, mostly alone, to the sound of birds and rainstorms, at strange hours of day and night. But, once the bones were recorded, I was somewhat unexpectedly joined by an amazing group of people, who came to musically lift me on their shoulders, and take these unsaid feelings to another plain in terms of sound."

Keaton is joined by Radiohead’s Philip Selway (drums and percussion), Leo Abrahams (guitars), Charlotte Harding (saxophones) and at one point a full string section. It's a release that you'll get a lot of mileage out of. This isn't an album to listen to for just a month or two. It's one you'll want to return to time and time again for years to come.

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Nick Smithson