CCMusic.com

Forget tall-walking ancestors, a decade in the post-grunge trenches and a viral streaming hit courtesy of an MTV Gen Z drama: Brian Fennell has experience of all those, but it's the simple things that move him most. Focusing on the things that matter is how Fennell writes and records under his alias. Simplicity, then, is what moves SYML - pronounced "simmel," it means "simple" in Welsh. It's what makes his self-titled debut album such a wonder. Mixed by Grammy award winning engineer Joe Visciano (Beck, Adele), SYML is 12 tracks of transcendent dream-pop, synth-rock, folktronica and cathartic, uplifting emotion. All recorded at home, just him and his imagination. And all filtered through an instinctive, genetic appreciation of the valleys and mountains of a corner of distant Britain. The album features breakout single, "Where's My Love," and fellow single, "Clean Eyes," a sticky, anthemic track that showcases his ability to write and produce indie-pop songs while staying true to his emotive lyric style and heart-wrenching vocal range.