William John Titus Bishop blazes fresh sonic trails through the Americana landscape with his experimental and exploratory fourth album — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Somewhere between a late-night lament, a full-on fever dream, a heartbroken hallucination and a radio stuck between stations, the London singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s latest unconventional full-length is every bit as compelling as it is challenging. Brazenly ignoring many ground rules of composition and songcraft, Americana’s 10 songs plunge you into a unique sonic netherworld of skittering subliminal beats, gently jangling acoustic guitars, distorted keyboard swells and meditative vocals that often seem like stream-of-conscious poetry. Fragile, rickety and nakedly immediate, this fascinating work is what it might have sounded like if prolific Texas recluse Jandek mind-melded with Bob Dylan circa John Wesley Harding — especially on Bishop’s spindly, muffled take on Zimmy’s classic I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.
For his part, Bishop says “the record is an exploration of requited and unrequited love, from the perspective of a couple who meet, fall into what may confusedly be called love and then part.” The lyrics closely follow the exploration of love in its various forms. On I Don’t Remember You At All, Bishop forlornly laments the lover whose happiness never ‘did depend on me.’ On Nicotine, he describes a lover whose ‘eyes were the stars, just a little more gently.’ Only on Lady Of Our Sorrows does Bishop touch on the darker, more hopeless aspect of love. Overall, the album is a musically complex and diverse exploration of the many forms of the love song.
Americana was produced, mixed mastered and recorded in Brighton, and evolves beyond the production of his earlier albums, venturing into a more layered, distinctive and idiosyncratic sound incorporating more synthesisers and keyboards. The album features a myriad of musicians from pop, folk, rock, classical and blues backgrounds. The artwork for the album was inspired by a number of anime artists, as well as contemporary portrait artist Grace Lau, in order to demonstrate Bishop’s experience of ethnic diversity in American cultures. It builds on the momentum of Bishop’s 2023 release I Hope That You Are Keeping Some Kind of A Record.
Born in London, Bishop is a classically trained cellist and double bassist who performed orchestral works before learning to play the guitar and perform at smaller venues on the circuit. In a breakaway from his stifling classical background, he began writing his own songs. From London, Bishop moved to Brighton, learning piano from Robin Coward, former pianist for Passenger, and Camille Phillips, current drummer with The Subways. He has previously recorded three albums and amassed a following of over 1.5 million on social media; his last release earned four million streams in its first week.
Listen to Americana below, check out some of William John Titus Bishop’s videos above, and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
