Andy's Aural Advent: 21 Dec. Eaves - "Spin"

"I think it's just trying to find my own sound. It's my first record and it's very eclectic - and the way it could go now is in any direction - but it was really important for me to test every genre. Some of it is simple singer-songwriter and some of it's quite trippy and heavy."

That's Joseph Lyons aka Eaves talking about his debut LP on Heavenly, What Green Feels Like. Though the comparison frustrates him, there is definitely something of Jeff Buckley about Lyons and his approach: earnest, jumping between styles, ambitious almost to a fault. The "quite trippy and heavy" moments on the record did very little for me, feeling like he was over-reaching, trying too hard, his love of metal-proggers Mastadon shining through. But “Spin”, a (deceptively complicated) "simple singer-songwriter" track, is easily one of my favourites of the year: voice and acoustic guitar spun slowly into gold over five magical minutes. If Eaves chooses this direction, his future could be very bright indeed.