ALBUM REVIEW: Perfect Light – 40 Watt Sun

At its outset, 40 WATT SUN was widely considered to a continuation of WARNING under a different name, and the project’s debut The Inside Room did little to assert its independence from the doom metal classic Watching From A Distance which preceded it. All that changed however with 2016’s Wider Than The Sky – an album which, with a minimum of overdrive and considerable restraint, achieved something distinctive. The second 40 WATT SUN record married the weight and instrumentation of a doom band with the lyrical intimacy of a singer-songwriter act in a way that had not been heard before, and that proved divisive for fans, some of whom refused to follow Patrick Walker as he navigated the project away from familiar grounds and towards something characterful and new.

Perfect Light arrives after the book was closed on WARNING once and for all at Roadburn 2017, and is as forceful a statement of liberation from his old band as the softly-spoken Walker would make. The album forsakes nearly all amplification to deliver its gentle sepia-tones in a not altogether unsurprising move for the project. Those fortunate enough to have seen 40 WATT SUN perform acoustically will recognise the sound, which is bolstered by accompaniment from drums (Ajit Gill, Andrew Prestidge), bass (Ryan Cowell, Roland Scriver), piano (Chris Redman) and backing singers (Nicola Hutchison, Lorraine Rath) to create a sparse but richly detailed arrangement.

We had imagined that the collective trauma of the preceding years would inflect darkness on the next 40 WATT SUN album, but Perfect Light is perhaps most surprising in its resplendence and hope. Walker’s lyrics retain the confessional form of a wounded romantic, but take on an entirely new character when set against the brightness of the instrumentation, which never quite eclipses the lingering bittersweet melancholy. It’s a well-worn contrast in song-writing, but one masterfully executed by Walker and company, and captured in sumptuous detail by both Theodore Howarth and Chris Fullard.

While Perfect Light is most often quiet and tender, it sometimes bears its teeth in moments of intensity. Until and Raise Me Up rekindle the glowing embers of Wider Than The Sky, and suggest that 40 WATT SUN have not completely dispensed with the idea of heaviness in their music. Similarly, repetition and occasional dramatic chord changes form the backbone of each song, and could be instantly recognised as Walker’s work. These are the continuities in change, which have become the project’s distinguishing features.

Perfect Light completes Patrick Walker’s emancipation from the expectations and associations of WARNING, and quietly asserts that 40 WATT SUN has become something altogether different. He continues to navigate the project away from the steady tides of despair, and towards the invigorating shores of hope: these are deeply personal, confessional songs, but it is pleasant and easy to become situated within them, and to let their poetry wash over you. 40 WATT SUN continue to shine with their third album, and things are only getting brighter.

Rating: 8/10

Perfect Light is out now via Cappio Records/Svart Records.

Like 40 WATT SUN on Facebook.