Kieran Hebden's sixth studio effort There Is Love In You under the moniker Four Tet is his most hypnotic and affecting to date. While his longtime friend Burial evokes desolate urban cityscapes, Hebden, and M83 tend toward melodramatic grandiosity, Hebden has refined his brand of electronic music to craft an intimate album that glows with warmth.
Album opener 'Angel Echoes' shimmers with its ghostly vocals and twinkling percussion and is the perfect track to usher in the album's centerpiece, 'Love Cry'. It's swirling, trance-y nine minute bliss, but it's actually after this song that the album becomes absorbing. It's this second part of There Is Love In You that demonstrates Hebden's ability to make rich organic music with his electronic toolkit, and pay homage to a range of styles and influences whilst maintaining a cohesive whole. 'Plastic People' is downbeat and dubstep, 'Reversing' is ambient and ethereal, recalling Brian Eno's Another Green World and album closer (my own personal favourite) 'She Just Likes to Fight' is testament to Hebden's post-rock origins. It's a beautiful closing song, brimming with optimism, the kind of thing you want to listen to after a really lousy day at work.
There Is Love In You is well worth a listen, and is a nice entry-point into Four Tet's discography. It's an intricate, melody-driven album that never fails to captivate me.
