Paul Goodwin is the sort of singer-songwriter that can silence an audience, give them all goose bumps and send them home with a warm glow – a pretty clever trick when he sounds so bloody miserable. With “Phosphorous Burn” he has managed to get close to his signature tune “Watertight”, pulling all the right emotional strings and picking out a lovely, mournful acoustic tune. “Folly or a Fortress” is equally impressive, utilising the female harmonies of Hannah Whitehall to great effect. I’m not so keen on his full band stuff, as it fails to hold the atmosphere, being too stark in contrast, so while “The Forked Tongue…” is a an engaging enough folk pop ditty it doesn’t feel right here at all. But last track “Place to Stay”, with its piercing violin and tense, sinister atmosphere, is more in keeping with the mellower stuff, and will hopefully herald a direction which will sit more comfortably with the acoustic miserabalism he has already mastered.