Album Review: Acceptance

Low-tempo maestros Truth return to their Deep, Dark and Dangerous imprint with a long-player of sublime electronica. Billed as their most personal album to date, Acceptance captures the duo at their most introspective, a response to a world in crisis evoked as nostalgia-inducing reveries and cavernous meditations.

Lead single Pages is a good representation of the vibe on offer: warm, enveloping sub-bass, wisps of female vocals drifting between reverbed waves of strings and synths, delicate plinking melodies with a touch of electronic sizzle. Title track Acceptance shuffles with purpose, a plucked guitar twang and rising keys riding a chugging central bass synth that suggests an almighty struggle being overcome. With the album being produced over the COVID quarantine era, it’s easy to see the sonic metaphor – this is music of soul and triumph.

Elsewhere this formula is tweaked to varying degrees of light and shade: on standout track Transition, long-time vocal collaborator Lelijveld brings icy, pristine croons to bear on a chilled-out triphop beat complete with sultry clarinet; a juddering bass stab wobbles underneath pensive blips and skittering perks on the moody You’ll See. A handful of short, atmospheric sketches demonstrating Truth’s wide instrumental palette rounds things out, including a tricked-out harp on Something Missing and acoustic piano over crackling vinyl on album-ending Deja Vu.

If you’re in the mood for music to find solace in, precisely mapped soundscapes where technical wizardry is largely subdued in service of emotional authenticity, you’ll find much to love here. Pop on the headphones and sink into your comfiest chair to get transported.