Enigmatic London artist White Tail Falls has released his debut album, Age Of Entitlement, as well as sharing a beautiful acoustic version of the album’s opening track, ‘Body Weight’.
Recorded between stints of songwriting in LA and on the road in Southern California and West Texas, the album was produced by Erland Cooper and is included in June’s Rough Trade Edit as one of their Albums of the Month, who call it “one of the most life-affirming, honest, empathetic and heart-stopping records you’ll hear this year.”
The first solo endeavour from The Hoosiers’ frontman Irwin Sparkes, Age Of Entitlement explores an array of evocative lyrical themes, set against a euphoric and immersive sonic palette touching on influences from the worlds of folk, mellow pop and alternative. Simultaneously confessional, cathartic and candid, the album is a deeply personal project, which became a part of Irwin’s own personal therapy.
Opening with the fragile, exquisite, life-affirming ‘Body Weight’, the album moves through the spirit-stirring R&B of ‘Devout’ – inspired by Hippocrates’ idea of the ‘four humors’ – to the richly textured title track, led by raw, folk-esque guitar, while conveying a passionate and intimate narrative set against lush musicality.
Elsewhere, ‘Rome’s Already Fallen’, powered by piano and orchestra, pinpoints the pivotal moment in a relationship when tempers blow, bruises bloom, things can’t be unsaid and there’s no going back to how things were, while the sumptuous ‘Only Getting Easier’ explores the first-hand experience of someone trapped in a cycle of habitual wrong-doing.
The album follows the release of the singles ‘Give It Up, Son’, ‘Disintegrate’ and ‘Fake News’, which have enjoyed support from Lauren Laverne and Guy Garvey at BBC 6Music, with Guy describing ‘Fake News’ as “very beautiful”. Each release was accompanied by an instalment of a short film exploring the sinister aspects of our collective desire for comfort, with the three-part series relating back to the confessional lyrical themes of the album.
Having crafted intoxicatingly beautiful soundscapes laden with equally self-reflective and observant lyricism – and with writing informed by the volatility of mental health, dreams becoming spirit-crushing grinds, and an eventual pivot to positivity – the release of White Tail Falls’ beautiful debut album is the perfect balm for these troubled times.
AGE OF ENTITLEMENT TRACK LIST
Body Weight
Fake News
Give It Up, Son
Other Kind Of Guy
Devout
The Trouble With Difficulty
Age Of Entitlement
Disintegrate
Only Getting Easier
Rome’s Already Fallen
Disintegrate (Reprised)
Follow White tail Falls:
