Berlin (dpa) – If you place him among Neil Young, Nick Drake, Randy Newman and the Beatles (more accurately: George Harrison), you certainly can’t get close to Eden Knight. His new album surprisingly brings these main effects together as a brilliant epigone without the musicians.

The self-titled fourth work by a songwriter from the Vancouver (Canada) area is something for folk pop connoisseurs. “Aidan Knight” (Full Time Hobby / Rough Trade) thrives on an extremely delicate production that is not shy of opulence and e-guitar accents – plus the sweet, soft voice of the mid-thirties (oh yes, this Will be more in context) Compositors Andy Schoof and Elliot Smith should be compared).

Great role models Randy Newman (the beautiful piano ballad “These Days”), the Beatles (eg “Slick II” quotes at the end of “Don’t Let Me Down”), Nick Drake (in “St. Kearns”) and Neil Young ( “Houston TX” as a semi-remake of “Old Man”) can be clearly heard. But it does not matter because Berliner knits these echoes by knight artfully into a hereditary sound that he has been cultivating for almost ten years.

Already its predecessor, “Every Other”, the third Night album since 2010, Canadians developed their melancholy folk rock into the sublime Cinemascope shape. Pianos and keyboards, wind instruments and strings pillow the pieces, overly sweet or obnoxiously succulent without arrangement.

The only problem with this much-loved musician, with the new record: In a densely populated area of ​​indie folk, he has no real unique selling point. The song’s quality and solid craftsmanship make up for it in the end: “Aidan Knight” is one of the strongest singer-songwriters albums of this late summer.