Ian Prowse – Here I Lie

It's amazing what confidence can do for an artist. Merseyside favourite Ian Prowse's first solo album, 2014's Who Loves Ya Baby, was caught betwixt and between reaching for a wider audience and satisfying the acolytes who buy everything he releases. Sure, the songs were strong, but the record lacked a thread for listeners to pull at and take into their lives. The ex-Pele singer and Amsterdam frontman was taking his first steps into a brave new world and, when he followed it up in 2015 with the startlingly original Compañeros, the picture became clearer and Prowse had a road map to follow.

He followed said path into a successful Pele reissue campaign that took in two years of remastered releases and constant touring around the UK and Europe. It reinvigorated both Prowse's current band Amsterdam and excitement around his activity, but it also did something far more important: the renewed interest has acted as the catalyst for the songwriter's strongest set of tunes in over a decade.

Here I Lie is a fantastic listen. The songs are magnificently melodic, and precise production from ex-Blow Monkeys drummer Tony Kiley brings out colour and nuance not heard in Prowse's recordings in a while. Opener Joseph rocks and swings (quite the trick, that) like something from a modern-day E Street Band record; American Wake tells its ancient tale on a bed of widescreen Americana; All the Royal Houses is perfect protest pop with snap, crackle and bite ('Move the homeless / For flag wavers').

The lyrics hint at a preoccupation with the past and present – 'Days when I don't see you', 'My hearing and my sight' – but lean in closer and you'll hear an album brimful of wide open songs about freedom, hope and optimism for the future. Stand-out tunes 10 Second Journey and the heartbreaking title track sound like long-lost takes from R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People, and it's that classic album's themes and atmospheres that Here I Lie shares a space with. You can pay a record no finer compliment than that.

Listen to: Here I Lie, 10 Second Journey, We Ride At Dawn