Artists like Nick Drake or Elliot Smith come along once in a Pink Moon, struggle to achieve recognition and then become eulogized after their tragic lives. Do we hurt to love or love to hurt? Seems it doesn’t matter once we’ve put some emotional distance between the music and the artist. Smith’s 1997 Either/Or album was really the sound of raw emotion and a cry for help, so how did it become lounge jazz? Singer-songwriters regularly inhabit all this mythology, and with many pretenders to the throne, it’s nice to hear the odd genuine one. Kings Of Convenience neatly side-stepped full-on angst on their Quiet Is The New Loud, offering Simon & Garfunkel before swiftly heading off to the coffee tables.

The songs of Joel Richardson aka Butcher The Bar may have pulled off a similar trick, but let’s not damn his sophomore release with faint praise. For Each The Future Tethered is an album fit for cafes and boutiques everywhere, but more importantly it recognises the influence of artists like Smith and Drake. Nicer still, it laces the melancholy with a few more upbeat numbers than its predecessor. He’s a bit of a stay-at-home Badly Drawn Boy with a whispering Joe Pernice-style vocal, nimbly picking his guitar through some nice homespun tunes, but inevitably wanting to crank it up like Neil Young or Teenage Fanclub occasionally so we’ll forgive him for that.

The songs on 2008 debut Sleep At Your Own Speed felt a bit sorry for themselves, but there’s more pluck and self-assurance this time around. ‘Sign Your Name’ and ‘Bobby’ will have you humming and tap-tap-tapping on those tables! ‘Cradle Song’ sounds like something The Las might have banged out in the 90s had they stuck around, and ‘Silk Tilts’ (careful how you say that!), ‘X’ and album closer ‘Lullaby’ all have a bit of zip about them. Actually, the latter repays a careful listen and is typical of the album as a whole: a tired-sounding beginning suddenly springing to life halfway through, catching this listener slightly off-guard! There are some nice arrangements on For Each The Future Tethered, with brass and strings layered in with the vocal and guitar, and Richardson pens a good lyric, too. My album highlight would be acoustic-driven ‘Blood For The Breeze’ where he really does sound like Elliot Smith, part homage, spitting poison and bile, but wrapped up in his own distinct sugar-coating (love to play it to Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks at News International):

“The earth’s an ugly face a great ghastly place / A thickening rotten taste a vacuum for grace / We’re spiteful don’t ever move here have reason / Save your second thought for children you’ve taught / For national news reports opinions you’ve bought / It’s garrish to you I won’t buy or would I? / When the sea surrounds the trees bodies burn beneath the breeze / Building shatter families cry I’ll be splitting out the sides”

Something’s taking shape here on For Each The Future Tethered, so let’s give it a chance. Clearly with an ear for a tune, Butcher The Bar isn’t shouting for attention but letting the songs do his bidding. It would be nice for a songwriter of this kind to stick around a bit, so we don’t end up struggling with his legend like all the others. Watch this space.