Some people just disappear, don’t they? Five years ago, Benjamin Francis Leftwich released his debut, Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm, to great acclaim; it went on to sell more than 100,000 copies and eventually gained more than 150 million global Spotify plays.
The world, obviously, was ready for Leftwich, but life tripped him up – his father died. Needing, as he says, “to live outside of music” for a while, Leftwich took time to rethink. And then, of course, to write. The results are really beautiful – an assortment of songs underpinned by sadness and loss yet which see hope beyond the obvious grave emotions.
The style is sophisticated folk-pop – hushed and fragile – delivered consummately by a songwriter whose time has, not for the first time, truly arrived.
