English singer-songwriter Ben Howard hones in on his mellow folk sound with his second studio album I Forgot Where We Were, a ten-track release. Following the release of his debut album Every Kingdom, Howard’s sophomore album is merely the beginning to this 27-year-old’s career. Nonetheless, it produces an undoubtedly impassioned effect. With a newly self-assured voice, Howard doesn’t shy from sharing feelings of despair and emptiness. It is as if you have no choice but to be right there in the thick of his low spirits while listening.

While Howard doesn’t care to complicate his music with multiplex lyrics, he certainly strives to do so with the acoustic and percussion elements. To that end, he is known to play his guitar in atypical fashions when the songs permit, at times laying his guitar atop his lap and playing it percussively. The slow build-up that eventuates in quick finger picking of the guitar in “Rivers In Your Mouth” at about three minutes into the track exemplifies the importance of the guitar for Howard’s sound. Without it, perhaps Howard wouldn’t have such a well-known presence in the U.K., with two BRIT Awards in 2013 and a nomination for the Mercury Prize in 2012 for his first studio album.

Yet, the song that really did the trick was “Time Is Dancing.” The song brings you in with a steady drumbeat not unlike being tenderly invited out on the dance floor for a slow sway. Howard pronounces, “And I am finally coloring / Inside the lines that I live between,” in a loving tone as he describes his state of laughter as a result of “being fired up” about someone, which is evident as a result of his consistent repetition of the phrase “Oh you, oh you, oh you,” which is likely to resonate with anyone who has experienced deep, romantic feelings for another person.  It is one of the only tracks on the record that leave you in a warm state rather than a despondent one.

The record’s overall sound can be considered to be too contained at times. The closing songs “Conrad” and “All Is Now Harmed” feel tame and underwhelming due to the hushed tone of Howard’s voice and less prominent percussive factor. Depending on the listener, this simplicity of lyrics with the calming instrumentation may nonetheless be a respectable feat.

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