The Soft Cavalry

A slow-burning triumph.

A slow-burning triumph.

This is a remarkable later-in-life debut, and one that proves that it’s never too late to make the record of your dreams.

There’s plenty of promise here.

The album as a whole is smooth, straightforward, and well-ordered, and bears lyrics that are an ode to both Goswell’s and Clarke’s musical genius.

The Soft Cavalry has the full-vision flow of an album like Deserter’s Songs, wherein each track has a unique character and story to tell. If the writing process behind these songs was hesitant and searching, the production that has brought them to fruition, helmed by Clarke’s fellow musician brother Michael, is striking and confident.

[The Ever Turning Wheel is] a track whose presence is indicative of the record as a whole: tender, considered, personal. 'Call off the race, I’m thumbing my way back to you', and the listener may find themselves agreeing.

Together, they've crafted a cerebral yet effortless vast and cinematic ode to love and new beginnings, one that splits the difference between shoegaze and synthpop. [Aug 2019, p.36]

Atmospheric, cinematic, dramatic, evocative. [Summer 2019, p.87]

There’s a pleasing weightlessness wending its way through The Soft Cavalry’s 12 tracks, alternately augmented and offset by Clarke’s lyrics, ranging from tender to grim to destructive. On paper, that reads as confusing; on the record, that stew of emotional expression coheres nicely, each ingredient blending with the others in Clarke’s dream pop base.

The Soft Cavalry isn't without its flaws, some clunky drum programming among them. But if Clarke can keep this up, his days as tour manager may be numbered.

The Soft Cavalry is the sound of Clarke coming into his own as a songwriter, enriched by Goswell's contributions. The album holds a reverence for the fragility of life and a recognition of just how vital our closest relationships are to its experience.

At times, his contemplation gets a little too meandering, and some songs fall on the wrong side of the fine line between anthemic and clichéd. Nevertheless, The Soft Cavalry is a promising debut that's held together by the emotional commitment Clarke and Goswell bring to each of its songs.

There is quiet drama here--especially on the gothic crawl of Spiders or Home's extended inner-space walk--but sometimes The Soft Cavalry struggle to project it beyond their own moody boundaries, or to find that extra charge. [Aug 2019, p.92]