Max Pope - Praise Animal

“Praise Animal” is Max Pope's sophomore album, eight tracks about the version of yourself that appears when good manners disappear.

Pope had already spent years being other people's secret weapon, writing and playing guitar for Mahalia, Yussef Dayes and Tom Misch, which is a strange apprenticeship for someone so clearly capable of carrying his own record. Her debut album, “Counting Sheep,” was a gentle introduction. This one, written and co-produced with Riley Macintyre, deliberately explores rawer subjects, the instinctive, sometimes self-destructive animal that hides beneath politeness. The title works both ways, naming this inner creature and society's hunger to be validated for having one. Recorded at Church Studios in London, it marks a real leap forward from what preceded it.

“One Foot in Front of the Other” carries the most direct emotional weight of the album, the guitar work speaking as much as the lyrics. “Love Someone Self Destruct” is the rawest track on the record and it keeps its promises, a lean blues meeting soaring electronic sounds. “Home” settles into something warmer and more soulful, and “Love Is Dead” closes the record on its darkest, most cinematic note.

Eight songs about ego, vulnerability and inherited patterns, performed by someone who spent years making other people's records sound just as good and who has finally turned his attention to himself.