Mr Fogg
Giving In

Gulp. This is a thing of heart-stopping beauty, like a lump in the throat giving way to an unexpected tear. With so much electro-pop steeped in fashion, cool and irony, its genuinely shocking to find synths framing something so emotionally naked. You almost feel like an intruder into such vulnerability. Mr. Fogg’s sound is hardly complicated but he gets remarkable mileage out of a few chords and a drum machine.

‘Giving In’, the song, builds in intensity in the subtlest way. Mr. Fogg’s cracked choirboy voice barely rises above a whisper, but the gradual swell of the music inspires a sense of wonder. Its steady mournfulness is reminiscent of OMD. ‘Cogs’ is similarly ghostly, if less melodically striking.

Other influences are less predictable. ‘Bloodrush’, not only references their second album title, but has an elegant simplicity that marks the very best of Coldplay’s work, without the OTT atmospheric conceits that often disfigure it. It ends matters on a sad but compassionate note.

I don’t know quite what he’s singing about in these opaque verses, but ‘Giving In’ clearly comes from a broken place.

Mr. Fogg paints beautiful miniatures. His gentle songs are an arm round the shoulder and a comfort to the soul.