Goon is the album I didn’t realise I needed until I heard it.
After a few weeks binging on the latest dark glitchy hip-hop releases, and another few delving into the #NWOBHM (for the uninitiated that’s “New Wave of British Heavy Metal”) to appease a metal friend, I felt-super burnt out as a listener. This album of simple, humble piano driven ballads was a breath of fresh air that asked so little of me but gave so much. Goon offers little more than blocky piano chords (think Lennon’s “Imagine”), unabashed love-stricken sentiments set to well-worn rhyming partners, and a warm, decidedly un-2K15 production aesthetic. Yet such is the effortlessness and consistency of this batch of songs (it must have been hard to pick a single because so many are home runs) that I found myself asking nothing more of it.
The self-deprecatingly titled Goon is a welcome reminder that sometimes a song from the heart is all you need to keep you afloat.

Recommended by Simon C, Central City Library