★★★½
There’s a charisma to Josef Salvat that is entirely endearing.
He’s an artist who crafts chart-ready music with a slight disdain for all the trappings that come associated with success.
His debut Night Swim encapsulates all those feelings into one neat, tidy, if not slightly confused package. ‘Open Season’ is glitchy electronics over a piano-led beat that, while expertly crafted, feels a little too similar to the darker pop songs currently flooding the airwaves – something that continues in ‘Paradise’. It’s not until we reach ‘Hustler’, a shadowy late-night creeper, that we feel like Salvat has really opened the door to authenticity and let us into his world. ‘Till I Found You’ is a soulful piece that’s dripping with lyrics that intertwine love and salvation, before Salvat treats us to ‘Constant Runners’, an album highlight wearing its ’80s synthpop influences on its sleeve. It’s the type of track that makes us feel like we are the person Salvat is singing about, and not just to. On the title track, Salvat shows us just how brooding lust, obsession and betrayal is truly supposed to sound.
While Night Swim does occasionally feel disjointed, it is a strong debut from an artist who is looking to bring those guilty pleasures and abandoned fascinations out of the darkness and onto the dancefloor.
Josef Salvat’sNight Swim is outon Liberation.
