Humberstone

In The Nursery’s long career has in recent years been one of recapitulating and reexploring some of their most distinct elements in newer and just as striking fashions, if not more so. 2022’s HUMBERSTONE, named by brothers Nigel and Klive not just after themselves but their family in general, found them alluding to the loss of older members of that family and reflecting on connections and memories; its resultant songs, each described with a number pattern and a parenthetical profession, are identified as ideas that came to them in a particular order. While starting with easily one of their most dramatically dark songs in an oeuvre with many examples – “H21 Émigré (The Dressmaker)” – the album’s single “H43 Ektachrome (The Animator),” a clear nod to their father Arthur, is more easygoing and reflective, almost the closest they’ve gotten to a mournful David Gilmour Pink Floyd number perhaps. Among the album’s other reflective standouts are “H31 Redpits (The Gardener),” driven by clipped, stark guitar parts against drone and strings, and “H57 Cookham Stone (The Painter)” with its mournful harmonica.