RM Hubbert – Breaks & Bone

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 04 Sep 2013
Album title: Breaks & Bone
Artist: RM Hubbert
Label: Chemikal Underground
Release date: 27 Sep

Stripping arrangements back to one man and a guitar again (after the broader, guest-filled canvas of Thirteen Lost & Found), Breaks & Bone firmly underscores RM Hubbert’s technical genius. On Bolt, percussive throbs underpin a flitting guitar line and poignant, almost-whispered vocals, while on tracks like Dec 11 his dancing strings maintain both elaborate melody and the rattling bass beneath – a layering that belies their single-take, single-player creation.

But it’s not just his guitar skills that continue to amaze. Perhaps it’s the presence of self-sung lyrics, imprinting his abstractly expressive playing with more tangible sentiments (“If life’s a happy song then we’re tone deaf”; “sometimes it’s just too late to expect forgiveness for half-imagined slights”), but Breaks & Bone is Hubby’s most emotionally affecting record yet, with songs like Feedback Loops heart-breaking in their sincerity. Though inspired by letting go, Breaks & Bone is an album to clasp on to tightly. 

Playing Edinburgh's Electric Circus on 26 Sep, Glasgow's St Andrews in the Square on 29 Sep, and Manchester's Takk on 30 Sep http://www.rmhubbert.com