It’s been nearly three years since I reviewed Daniel Lee Kendall’s sublime sophomore EP Talk the Night Away. I raved about the five track collection, but insisted that such a small number of songs was merely a tease. I said that I couldn’t wait for the long player, but it seems I can.
Finally my patience has been rewarded with “Angelique,” the first new song Daniel’s released in years. It’s not that he hasn’t been creative, but it seems he’d been spending too much time in his head, worrying about whether the music would be embraced and whether commercial success would follow. And so his songs sat, gathering virtual dust.
It was clear something had to change, so Daniel set off for some soul searching in the Middle East and Sri Lanka. Then he headed to university, hoping to find the answers there. Finally he was in the right headspace to revisit some 50 demos that had sat idly. “Angelique” was one of those tracks which has been given a second chance as Daniel rediscovered his love of music.
“Here I am, with an album of songs that I once loved, and have learnt to re-love again. Though with a different love. It’s far more like I’m appreciating an old album of an artist in my youth,” he explained in a press release. “It’s almost as though someone else has written these songs, and I can appreciate and enjoy what this person has created and I wish to share them with people again.”
And once again, I can’t wait to hear more, or at least I’m excited that I won’t need to wait too long.