The record opens with ‘Over Under’, a wistful folk song in the vein of Small Sur, summed up by the recurring line, “In New York, I’ll never be yours”. From here the album takes a country rock turn, with the title track’s Americana jangle. ‘Back Tonight’ and ‘Wandering’ are reminiscent of Hip Hatchet’s lovelorn folk-rock, while ‘Another Way To Go’ and ‘Oh, Still’ show off a moody, bluesy side with oodles of swagger and impressive guitar solos.

‘For You Enough (I’m Told)’ is another country rock song in the traditional sense of doomed love and tough goodbyes (“I was never good enough at saying goodbyes”) before ‘Dangerous to Know’ slows things down with a finger-picked opening and gentle country yearning. This leads well into ‘Anna’, my current favourite. A long, wide slow-burner in the style of the older Phosphorescent material, the song swells as guitar and various other instruments loop and swirl with the eight short lines of lyrics:

“I, if only
Anna, I would
Disguise your lonely
And lighten your burden

Even when you
Blew the last fuse
I held true
Burned in the white Monmouth blaze”

In December, Adeline Hotel also released a stand-alone single ‘Disarray’ (complete with a B-side cover of ‘Seven’ by Mt. Egypt). Simpler in arrangement than many of the album tracks, the single again shows that Knishkowy is equally adept at the sparse folk sound as he is with folk rock.

You can buy Leave The Lights and ‘Disarray’ now via the Adeline Hotel Bandcamp page. Future Oak Records have also put out some vinyl and you can grab them here.

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