How could we not be excited by the release of Boniface’s debut? As a self-professed fans of Foals and White Lies, this album was supposed to play right into our ballpark. As always with expectations such as these, it can be easy to get burned, but thankfully whoever heard our prayers managed to fulfil them.
Boniface’s self-titled record is full of energy, full of feeling, painful heartbreaks and pure love. The uncontrollable kind of love. The one you are willing to sacrifice your sanity to feel. The point where you lose yourself and you don’t really know who you are anymore. I’ve been there, you’ve been there. It’s one of the feelings that defines you, makes you stronger. We’re not wise enough to learn how to avoid it. But that’s the magic of it.
Boniface is in his early 20s. And that makes this record fresh, loud, but simultaneously nostalgic (at least people like me who are past their 20s (or at least the into their late 20s). That’s the magic of this record. It reminds you of forgotten feelings. The album was written in a single room, where it was also recorded. The young acts of the moment, like Boniface or Billie Eilish, prove that if someone has talent and will, they need nothing more than a room and a laptop to create something beautiful. The magic hands of producer Neil Comber have helped Boniface to shape his final sound, which was a smart appointment. We all know that a record is part talent and part production, and you want the best possible production – especially when you have created something marvellous.
On this record, Boniface is vulnerable, and he is in love. And you feel vulnerable and in love just by listening to his lyrics and this wonderful music. And that, my friend, is not an easy thing to achieve. To make the listener identify with you. With your lyrics. I could easily write about the highlights of the record, but that would be unfair. Because the whole record is a highlight, and I think we already have one of the records of the year. Am I overdoing it? Maybe I am. But I think the hyperbole is something that Boniface aims for. We all have been hyperbolic in our youth. And it’s good, once in a while, to remember how reckless and carefree you were, now that you are a grown-up.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Boniface’s self-titled debut was released this Friday and is available to stream and purchase now.
