Album Review: The Paper Kites – Roses

Over the last decade, The Paper Kites have consistently released records that push the envelope of their sound, making clear that they won't shoehorn themselves into whatever is popular at the moment. Their fifth album, Roses, is no different.

The album opens like a meditation with 'Walk Above The City', with the gentle heartbeat of an acoustic guitar. Here, lead singer Sam Bentley takes a back seat to rising Portuguese star MARO – setting the stage for an album that positions the band's collaborators as their equals. Each track features a different female vocalist, hand-selected because the band were interested in working with them.

Connection is a running theme through Roses, and despite the fact that it was conceptualised and recorded pre-pandemic, the record’s central concept has become unwittingly relevant in recent times.

One of the more remarkable elements of the album is how perfectly the vocalists compliment Bentley, who is himself a master of melodic minimalism – capable of pulling incredibly evocative melodies from very simple phrasing. Case in point: ‘Climb On Your Tears’, the album’s second track, which features Grammy-winning Americana legend Aoife O’Donovan. She has a nearly laconic quality to her own phrasing, and the combination of the two vocals with the slow-burning 80s-inspired guitar solo (courtesy of guitarist Dave Powys) turns what might have been a simple indie track (in anyone else’s hands) into an magnetising gem.

Bentley’s characteristically brilliant lyricism must be complimented on tracks like ‘Take Me Home’ (which features New Zealander Nadia Reid) and album closer ‘By My Side,’ a number with a beautiful choral quality that Bentley wrote for his daughter (accompanied by Donegal native Rosie Carney).

If you aren’t already familiar with their work, Roses might be a less favourable introduction to the group than, say, 2018’s On The Corner Where You Live. But if you give it the time of day, you will find it’s full of special moments.

Listen below.