“Well, I’m a lion in the haze and the lamb in the lightning/Oh these spears and chains of flames around my neck are tightening/So line up your armies, burn down my home please/Take the part that’s in my lungs, and the song I’m singing.”

King Charles (aka Charles Costa) is a good old fashioned singer-songwriter – cramming flowery words into his straightforward indie rock songs. After all, in 2009, he became the first ever Brit to win the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville for his song “Love Lust” and he’s basically kicked off from there.

Already 30, Costa displays a maturity that comes from paying one’s dues, on this, his sophomore album. Confident enough that he never hides behind production gimmicks and let the quality of the songs shine through.

Take the title track, an absolute highlight as a paean to the art of songwriting itself, perhaps – “Oh soaked in your sunlight my guitar reflects your face/Oh like standing in a rainbow you paint the landscape side breeze” – he plaintively sings, to great effect.

And that, dear readers, sums up what listening to King Charles delivers – this is for everyone who loves songwriting for the its own sake.

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