ALBUM REVIEW: Don't Let Your Heart Walk Away - Cape Francis

Don't Let Your Heart Walk Away - Cape Francis

I do this silly little thing when I listen to my Discover Weekly playlist.

I hear something I like, save it to my liked songs, tell myself that I'll go back later and add it to the appropriate playlists, then completely forget that the song even exists.

Blame it on my ADHD.

You may think of it as me being forgetful and bad at listening to music. I think of it as hiding some little surprises in my saved library for future me to find. It's always really confusing and kind of fun when I find a song from ages ago that I have no memory of. It's like my past self is popping back in to say, "Hey bestie, here's what you liked at this random point in time."

It's fun!

I was listening to music as I was walking in to work this morning. My liked songs were on shuffle, so I really didn't know what I was going to hear. A song from this album started, and I was honestly really confused.

I don't remember listening to that song. I don't remember saving it to my library. It was one of those gems left behind by my past self.

Thank you, past self, for giving me this week's album to review. You're a real one.

BACKGROUND

Cape Francis is the solo project of Kevin Henthorn. He started the project when his previous band was breaking up. The name of the project, Cape Francis, comes from Cape St. Francis, the surfing spot in South Africa known for "consistent back-to-back waves".

The first Cape Francis album, Falling into Pieces, came out in 2017. It was followed by Deep Water in 2019 and Plateaus in 2020. This is the fourth album and was released in September 2022.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.23

Yeah, okay, I know. This is the lowest score I've given.

I'm gonna say the same thing I said in my review of My Mind Makes Noises by Pale Waves: I have to be honest about what I like. That's the point of this whole thing. I'm not going to make up a score that doesn't reflect what I think of the album.

TRACKLIST RANKING

1. Fire Eyes

2. Nightwalker

3. Is It In Your Head

4. Even In The Dark

5. Hart Street

6. Ludlow (Spring)

7. When I Am with You

8. Don't Let Your Heart Walk Away

9. Gospel of Broken Arms

10. Ludlow (Winter)

11. So Bored

THE GOOD

CANYON DRIVES

Maybe it's just a thing where I'm from, but canyon drives are like spiritual experiences.

They're hard to explain unless you know exactly what I'm talking about. Canyon drives are better than therapy. And this Cape Francis album is the perfect soundtrack to a canyon drive.

It's kind of folky. The drums are far back in the mix, and the guitar is right in front. It's slow and it's sad. Again, it's hard to explain unless you know exactly what kind of canyon drive I'm talking about. If you know, you know.

THE BAD

I'M LOST

I'll say it a second time: blame it on my ADHD. But I found myself lost while listening to this album. Every track started to blend together.

Because Cape Francis has such a lowkey, relaxed sound, every song started to sound the same. Personally, I prefer a bit more variety in an album. Sure, I like the guitar folk songs, but I also like something with a faster beat.

ENDING ON AN INTERLUDE ????

Listen, I love a good interlude. My favorite band is The 1975, for crying out loud. Like, half of their discography is interludes. Interludes are great.

What I don't like is ending the album on an interlude.

The interlude itself is fine. It's a great song. I just don't understanding it being the closing track to the album (especially on an album with such a weak back side). The closing track is supposed to be what drives the whole thing home. The grand finale. The thing that makes people want to come back to hear what you do next.

And this one has... a one minute and forty second interlude.

THE TITLE TRACK DILEMMA

"Fire Eyes" should have been the title track. That's all I'll say.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I love the Plateaus album from Cape Francis. I really do. And I wanted to like this one just as much.

I know that it has a low score, but this album isn't bad. It's really not. It has its shining moments. This just isn't a piece of work that I would go out of my way to listen to. If that random song that I had saved comes up on shuffle, I'll listen to it, but I probably won't listen to the whole album again.