Listening to When I Was a Child is like listening to Austin Crane’s inner most thoughts, eaves dropping on somebody’s private, inner monologue. Aware that “Songwriting is a way to approach unanswerable questions, these experiences that don’t have easy conclusions,” he projects his thoughts over minimal instrumentation, slow beats and just enough guitar work to form a bare platform to hang his ideas on. Although speaking about very personal subject matter, it is also universal, his heart on sleeve musings are also our hearts and our sleeves. It is the raw honesty of these questions of love, life and loss that resonates with the listener, the music behind them being something to be subconsciously absorbed rather than concentrated on.
It is an album of late night contemplation, the soundtrack to another night of deep thought induced insomnia and the dawn breaking with no answers having being found. Whilst some records are all about connecting with the heart or head of the listener, Austin Crane is content to examine the workings of his very soul and far from being an insular activity actually proves it is the one thing that unites us all.
