All These Things

After a couple of years couch surfing, house sitting and soul searching across the world, Darren Hanlon has emerged with his fourth studio album, I Will Love You At All. Written in a variety of exotic locations from Paris to Coonabarabran, it seems travel has made Darren’s heart grow wistful, and the result is an album of gentle longing and reminiscence. Darren’s trademark wit and wordplay is ever present on I Will Love You At All but this time around the more understated settings of songs match a new kind of directness in his lyricism. As always, Darren’s eye for life’s smaller details are played out with charm and joyful abandon. From the light-fingered bounce of ‘Butterfly Bones’ to the evocative and plaintive ‘Modern History’, these songs mainline to the heart. There’s Darren’s first stab at an epic - ‘House’ clocks in at 7.39 minutes - and his most down-home country shuffle yet, ‘If Only My Heart Were Made Of Stone’, followed by the haunting closer of ‘What Can We Say?’. At each intimate turn, it’s an album rich in open spirit. I Will Love You At All was recorded at Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon by Adam Selzer (M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists). Featuring Rachel Blumberg (Bright Eyes, M Ward, She & Him, The Decemberists) on drums, the record also features long time collaborator Cory Gray on keys. Reinforcing the album’s sweet nature are the twin female vocals of Shelley Short and Alia Farah.