Short Reviews [Captain Of The Lost Waves - 2025 - "Rainy Day Confessions"]

I must confess to being somewhat surprised last month, when I had a call from The Captain. Not that it is unusual to hear from him, as we are often in contact, but more so that he was releasing a new album so soon after the amazing, majestic, "Beautiful Ugly". Given what has been going on his life over the last few years, the recovery from an awful car accident, and then working hard again on the live circuit, I found it difficult to understand there was a new one being made available so soon. Would I be interested in hearing it? Would I? There is no doubt in my mind that COTLW is one of the most important, vibrant and honest musicians around. What you see is what you get, a troubadour performing from the heart, treading the boards as a full-time musician playing a style of acoustic music which is often overlooked by the mass media. Here we find COTLW taking a slightly different route, unadulterated and pure, as one would hear him if you were sat with him in a pub, enjoying a beer. It is primarily The Captain, with violinist Wendy Ross joining on just a few tracks, and he worked in the studio with longtime friend and engineer Carl Stipetic. Six of these songs have been released over the last few months as singles, and now they have been collected along with another three to make the album. It starts with the title cut, and for me there is a melancholic beauty about this, which for the most part is just vocals and acoustic (I think bouzouki, but could well be wrong), although there are a few touches of piano here and there. This is all about the voice, the message, the words, accompanied by carefully constructed notes which draws in the listener and makes one think he is singing just to them, and that they are the most important person there. There are very few singers like Shaun, as he truly performs every time, using his voice not just to carry a melody but providing different vocalisations as he makes the use of an incredible instrument which makes his songs like no other. Seven of the songs are originals, all with their own story to tell as they shine in their own particular beauty and empathetic nature. One of the covers is "Angel", originally by Sarah McLachlan, a song Shaun felt drawn to and started playing a great deal, so much so that his wife asked if he was going to add it to his set. Just a few weeks after he started listening to it, he and his family understood why, as the lines "You are pulled from the wreckage, Of your silent reverie, You're in the arms of the angel, May you find some comfort here" became incredibly poignant and real as the car they were in was hit by a driver in a stolen vehicle fleeing police. Needless to say, this is packed full of emotion. The other cover is simply unreal, and I can guarantee no-one has ever heard "Ashes to Ashes" like this before. When Bowie released the song in 1980 it was his first #1 in the UK since "Space Oddity" more than a decade earlier yet I was never a fan, as I didn't think the song had much in it, but having now heard this version I am having to totally rethink that as it has been totally deconstructed and turned into something which somehow keeps much of the melody (and all the lyrics) and has turned it into something very different indeed. You never know, some people may well discover this album and therefore the rest of his catalogue through that one recording, and if that is the case then their lives will be much richer for the investigation. While these cover songs will be a way into The Captain's music for many, it does need to be clearly recognised and understood that they in no way stand out in any manner when compared with his own material, as it feels as everything on this album was crafted by the same master songsmith. There are very few musicians who are consistently so interesting, vulnerable and real, than Shaun T Hunter, Captain of the Lost Waves. He deserves much wider recognition than he has achieved so far, but to those of us in the know he is a real treasure to be valued. He has gone back somewhat to his roots with this release, measured and fully acoustic, and it is delight from beginning to end. while the vocals soar above them all. This is a delight from beginning to end.