Keaton Henson revisits his own back catalogue on Versions, an 11-track collection of reworked songs arriving December 11 via Play It Again Sam. The British singer-songwriter gives these pieces a second life, bringing his older writing into conversation with the voice and perspective he has now. The tracklist was shaped by fans choosing which songs they wanted to hear again, with collaborators from folk, rock and orchestral music helping reshape the arrangements. New recordings “Prayer” and “Comfortable Love” offer a first taste of the project, balancing Henson’s familiar emotional vulnerability with a more considered, fuller sound.
Listen below.
Talking about “Prayer,” he said: “When talking to Erik at the Stockholm Session Orchestra about which tracks to work on with them, this one pretty much came up instantly, obviously the original has a heavy leaning towards an orchestral sound at the end, but is mostly very stripped back before that, letting the silence and quiet carry the weight of what I was exploring. But I was interested to see what happened if we elevated it with a grander sound throughout. I think the result is really interesting and felt a bit like borrowing someone else’s hands to lift up the words that I felt not strong enough to carry when I first wrote them.”
He added about “Comfortable Love”: “This was one of those songs I never felt I got right when recording the original version for Kindly Now, but if I’m honest it’s just one of those many songs I put out and never looked back at. And by the time of making Versions I had pretty much forgotten it existed. But when it came up a few times in suggestions from fans I looked back at it and really wanted to have another look at it from a different angle, less abrasive and more from a simple more folk approach, and for me this new sound counters the snark of the lyrics, and taps more in to the melancholia I was feeling at the time.”
