Matthew E. White – Fresh Blood

With 50 Shades still filling cinemas, “let me sleep in your tent tonight” is far from the most salacious request you might hear this month, but posed between the feathery caress of lilting flutes and a cooing gospel choir on Fresh Blood’s third track, it’s emblematic of an attitude towards love and sexuality on Matthew E. White’s sophomore release that’s subversive by today’s standards. White preaches love as salvation, ecclesiastical overtones proudly vaunted.

Distilling classic soul, blues and rock stylings into a homely amalgam of southern sounds that’s distinctly spiritual yet defies pigeonholing, Fresh Blood offers a doctrine-free sermon in the transcendent power of love – be it the ecstatic brass crescendo that follows White’s assurance that “there’s nothing healing like the human touch” on the opener, or the angelic strings that disperse the cloudy peels of feedback on Tranquility. Touting an old-fashioned message and a vintage sound, Fresh Blood is nonetheless a revitalising listen.