Fondness, Etc. is a record about presence and fatherhood recorded to tape at home with sparse instrumentation and tender imperfections deliberately kept intact with a striking range. Singer-songwriter records of this kind tend to have a predictable format, but Shakey Graves refuses that template and conjures different moods and textures across nine tracks with intricate production choices that give the record a richness you wouldn’t expect from something recorded in a home studio to tape.

The opener Don’t Change a Thing sets the tone feeling tired and thankful simultaneously, not opposite emotions but in a certain tension with each other, perfect music for coming home after a draining day. When The Love Is New is a more obvious blues number that’s intimate and warm with a guitar solo that carries a hint of Chris Isaak, and Time Flies feel indebted to Paul McCartney with chamber strings, a classic melodic instinct and a guitar solo with a heavy flange. Suddenly is an instrumental highlight built around an angelic slide guitar and an uptempo, bouncy drum pattern while the tape recording gives an old and comforting texture that you can tell isn’t artificial. I Once Was An Ocean is another instrumental highlight built around woozy, trippy slide guitar that edges towards psychedelia without fully committing, and On My Own is beautifully gentle. No Place To Be Closes the album in classic Dylan mode with a very simple ending, and the closest sonic comparison is perhaps early Bon Iver, but where Justin Vernon’s cabin recordings were pointed at heartbreak and loneliness, Fondness, Etc. is much warmer. A very unformulaic folk and Americana record that will also appeal to any indie rock fan who appreciates a songwriter that’s willing to take risks and try different things.