Fallen Flowers

Tom James Scott has been uncommonly quiet over the past few years (2024-5); he’s generally a steady creative presence in the English underground, whether working away at his elegant solo studies, or collaborating with the likes of Andrew Chalk or Svitlana Nianio. Fallen Flowers is Scott’s new project, and it’s surprising both in its lifting of the hazy veil that’s occluded much of his previous music, and in its pointillist character, mostly consisting of guitar ping-ponging arpeggios with a verdant lushness that recalls Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column, or Maurice Deebank of Felt. Not exactly untilled territory, I guess, but Scott makes it feel somehow alive to the moment, spirited and forward-looking, while still indulging his trademark emotional framing, a wistful detachment that, just sometimes, brims over into a melancholy that’s quite affecting.