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LP
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BBI 036LP
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Absentee is the third solo album from Southend-on-Sea-based singer-songwriter Alfie Firmin and his first for Bobo Integral. Absentee chronicles a transitional time in the 25-year-old Alfie's life, a long-planned move to Sweden gone awry amidst a global pandemic. The ten original songs on Absentee were born out of this experience, not present to ride out the pandemic alongside family and friends back home, while similarly deprived of the opportunity to engage with his new surroundings Alfie set about writing the songs that make up the album. If follows on from and expands upon the laid-back folk-rock sound hinted at on Alfie's 2020 self-released album, Waiting On. Once back in Southend, Alfie enlisted the help of Jonathan Coddington (Ex-Vöid, Jelly Boy) to record the album at The Soapworks Recording Studio in South London. Once basic tracking was complete sessions were moved closer to home with overdubs being recorded at Southend's own SS2 Studios with Rees Broomfield (Asylums, Rooskin). Southend mainstay Ted Groves contributed piano, drums, guitar, and backing vocals alongside M.G Boulter on steel guitar and Dave Huntriss (Novo Amor) providing brass on lead single "Can't Stop Thinking About You". A miracle album from a young musician that sounds like a classic after four great records in five years (three solo and one as the band Vestiges). This is his best effort yet. From the McCartney-esque piano balladry of "Lost on Me" to the horn-laden folk rock of "Can't Stop Thinking About You" alongside the Laurel Canyon country-shuffle of "December Third", it is an album that is well-versed in the traditions of classic singer-songwriter pop filtered through the lens of Alfie's distinctive croon. RIYL: Josh Rouse, Ron Sexsmith, Andy Shauf, Harry Nilsson, early '70s Beach Boys, Beatles solo albums.
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