Roddy Woomble – Lo! Soul

Five solo albums deep and over 25 years in the music business as frontman of Idlewild, Scottish songwriter Roddy Woomble may just have produced his most creatively expansive record to date. Lo! Soul steps away from Woomble’s previous acoustic/folk intentions in favour of a more explorative light, its title taking heed from Walt Whitman who frequented the term 'Lo' as a call to action.

"[Lo! Soul] is the most unusual record I have made," says Woomble in the album's accomanying press release, and its equally unusually titled opening track Return to Disappear sets the tone from the off. Horn flutters and undulating synths evoke a dystopian pop atmosphere on Architecture in LA and As if it Did Not Happen, while a spoken-word exposé is infused with melancholic piano lines on Atlantic Photography to gripping effect.

'I know the whole world is out there / And I can stare at the possibilities', sings Woomble on Take it to the Street and in a way these lyrics describe the album in a nutshell. Woomble’s words may outreach from a place of isolation and introversion, but this album does more than stare at its creative possibilities – it embodies them absolutely.

Listen to: Architecture in LA, Atlantic Photography