The [PIAS] Store

For the past twenty-five years, Kris Dane has quietly become one of the most distinctive and sincere songwriters Belgium has produced. With his ninth album, he continues his idiosyncratic trajectory while finding yet another unexpected detour. To record the album, Dane decamped to rural Britain, teaming up with producer Jamie Evans on eight tracks that resist compression — literally and figuratively. In an era when songs are manufactured as TikTok snippets and everything must be bite-sized and frictionless, Dane lets several pieces stretch toward the eight-minute mark. It doesn’t come off as a manifesto, but the effect feels like a deep breath the moment you press play. Dane wanted to stay close to the essence of each song. The result is a record that feels fragile, intimate, and even more personal than his previous work. He sings about the difficulty of listening to your own heart (Get It On), about alienation (Beyond The Wall), and about love in its full, overwhelming force (All Things Beautiful, Half Moon, Carob Tree) all viewed through the eyes of someone on the verge of marriage. The songs read like dispatches from a pivotal chapter, but they also reflect a writer working at his highest level. Dane considers these his strongest songs to date, and it’s hard to argue.