The Little Unsaid - Selected Works (2018)

As the driving force behind the Reveal Records, Tom Rose has been responsible for giving a platform to some of the most beloved and critically acclaimed acts of recent times, not least Brit folk legends Lau and Eddi Reader and New York singer songwriter Joan As Policewoman. So when he gets genuinely excited about a band, it’s worth listening. The band in question, The Little Unsaid, is the songwriting outlet for Yorkshire-born John Elliott. Rose was first introduced to Elliott’s songs in 2016 and was so moved that he spent the next year trying to work out how to become involved with the band. He now acts as their manager and has instigated the release – on his own label – of Selected Works, which serves as both a career retrospective and a valuable primer for the uninitiated.

The first thing you notice about these songs is their emotional honesty. Elliott writes about mental illness from the point of view of someone who has lived through it and come out the other side, someone who is acutely aware of how close he still is to his demons. But his songs are full of hope, full of the potential for a better future despite the continued proximity of depression. All this can be gleaned from just the first song, the heartstoppingly sad piano ballad Day Is Golden, in which seemingly banal details – using the wrong toothbrush – become crushing, deadening events, but which carries nonetheless a message of personal redemption. It is a theme he revisits often – Let Desire Back In and Symptomatic both explore illness and the healing process.