Johnny Flynn returns from stage to studio with "Heart Sunk Hank"

It is the mark of any storyteller worth their salt to know the high, low and crossed roads behind them as they keep up the sense of making fresh trails; this bardic balladeer seems to read them on the palm of his hand, whatsoever he next turns it to.

It was not certain, even since first single ‘Raising the Dead’ introduced the latest LP, in typically sure-footed and marching style, that the neo-country crooner wouldn’t deviate down tracks trodden. Lest we forget two remix releases that accompanied Country Mile, stamping and stomping away the soft subtleties in some sort of Scandi-naiveté. Here on Transgressive Records, Flynn revels in the forlorn, the wistful, the wry and witty, nostalgia too with the faded reel-to-reel effect of a ‘40s Voice-o-Graph recording booth, sure; it is fervently and flawlessly Flynnish, mixing the old with the new with the borrowed and blue, nothing short of a reverie as it exudes it heart, then sinks and expires.

After crossing the tracks into theatre, acting in Lovesick and soon to be appearing in Love is Thicker Than Water - you could intuit a flair for emotive themes - among compositions and scores, "Heart Sunk Hank" heralds a return from stage to studio. Soothing, rustic serenading, spinning yarns about you with anecdotal charm must be pleasingly antidotal, today.