Album Review: The Blissful Spontaneity of ‘Collections From The Whiteout’

The British singer-songwriter’s fourth studio album is more experimental and introspective than its predecessors.

Written by Katie Karp

Photo courtesy of @benhoward_ on Instagram

Between the campy acoustic sounds that filled his debut album Every Kingdom, the skittish riffs of I Forget Where We Were, and the dramatic instrumentation of Noonday Dream, each of Ben Howard's albums possess a particular sound and feel. However, the nature of his most recent album is more difficult to pinpoint. Howard shared what it would sound like if the most substantial features of his previous records were blended together and expanded upon with his latest release, Collections From The Whiteout. The most notable fusion comes when Howard combines experimental instrumental sounds with lyrics that reflect upon historical events and explore issues on a more worldly scale.

The repetitive, electronic sounds of the opening track are met with folksy lyrics. Howard feels lost and looks toward his love for both guidance and stability on “Follies Track.” This same reliance on a lover for answers is also apparent on "What a Day." Lyrics such as, "Always fearing / Our hands clawing / Up against the light, it's nearing / Where does all the time go?" perhaps reveal Howard’s usage of love as a metaphor for the emptiness of today’s digital culture.

The loose drum ticks and playful, synth-y guitar that ring throughout "Crowhurst Meme" create a sort of free-spirited, beachy tune. Howard experimented instrumentally to evoke the seaside, and he was purposeful in pairing it with lyrics about Donald Crowhurst, a British sailor whose cheating in the 1968 Golden Globe Yacht racer led to his death. "Laughing and ha-hoorah! / Well, that's a riverbed sleep / What's this feeling? / And they'll murder me / If I come back winning," Howard sings on the track. The fluid instrumental changes throughout the song also align with the spontaneous and raw nature of its lyrics, something that is also carried out into the next track, "Finders Keepers."

Image courtesy of Republic Records

“Far Out” delves into the idea that people are often drawn to violence due to sheer boredom. Howard sings, "Over the top they all cried / Mad, the murder in their eye / Ten walked out one Sunday / To fill the sky in." The song's chirpy melody and acoustic guitar are joined with various stories, dialogues, and metaphors to reiterate the central focus of the song. 

The artist puts his singer-songwriter abilities on full display in "Rookery." With only an acoustic guitar to accompany his ambient voice, Howard essentially describes a folktale which discusses  how to find peace amidst a world of hysteria — an essential lesson for his listeners who continue to live and thrive despite the vastness of complexities in the 21st century. 

"Sage That She Was Burning" exemplifies the experimental nature of the album. Combining classic keyboard sounds with synthetic buzzes and his slow, soft voice, Howard produces an ethereal quality in his sound. The poetic lyrics about clouds, sleep, and breezes uphold the dreamy nature of the song. Howard also brings his listeners back in time through "Sorry Kid," which tells the story of Anna Sorokin, a Russian socialite whose hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid tabs led to her arrest in the U.S.

Forcefully strumming his guitar with a spoken-word delivery of the melancholy lyrics to "Unfurling," Howard creates an eerie, depressing sound that contrasts the upbeat nature of the album’s eleventh track, "Metaphysical Cantations." The musician sings about his desire for another person to raise his spirits, crooning: "To be the one that causes affectations / We're searching for / Timing to / Tell her to come and visit me." The track clarifies his belief that there is something beyond himself that holds power to bring him joy.

"Making Arrangements" is evocative of the campy songs that embellished Howard's early music, using picturesque and heartful lyrics to mask the soft flutes and drum beats that accompany it. Howard cultivates a folk sound in the following track, "The Strange Last Flight of Richard Russell." But as he recounts the story of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport employee who stole an airplane only to crash it an hour later, he relies on electronic sounds that ultimately make the true story feel like a folktale.

Completing the album is the short and chirpy tune "Buzzard," in which Howard proclaims that the sounds and ideas of the realists around him will not phase him as he sings: “No, well they won't catch me / I'm a fast talker, quick walker, dreamer.”

With a diverse range of instruments and lyrical content that alternates from true stories to fictional poems, it is clear that experimentation was the key to producing Ben Howard's most adventurous album yet. Collections From The Whiteout brings listeners sporadic, curious, and optimistic music as the world climbs out of the dark winter and approaches the brightness of spring.