Release: 5th December 2025
Label: Opiate Records
“The kind of Christmas we yearn for, and the spiritual quiet we often crave. Cleverley’s ‘Gods of All Things’ is a sharp and introspective work, but also warm affair filled with beauty”
We have to admit it has been a little while since we last went on an trip into the fields of Chris Cleverley’s music. As a farmer plants his crop there must be a concern about the wealth and strength of what is to come to show for the work put in, but we were certainly grateful for taking a path back through these fields as this is fruitful work indeed. We don’t know if Cleverley grows sweetcorn, but either way he should be jumping for joy in the streams of Indie-Folk for his work has been compared to that of Surfjan Stevens or Elliott Smith.
This is accurate, and suits very much with Cleverley inhabiting the whirlpools of the rainbow tinted waters that are “dream folk” alongside some sharp guitar strokes that young folk would probably say is all around “vibes”. There is a melancholy and dizzying inward looking, and this is defeinitely the case in his newest EP, “God of All Things”. With this title, you might be surprised to know that this is not an album about Argos, but Cleverley instead turning to Christmas to develop some ideas around gratitude and love without neglecting the less appreciated regret, loneliness and grief. He does this through original tracks and the lens of Christmas mainstays. Cleverley’s goal is to peel back and peek beyond the foundations of the Yule celebration, beyond 24 hour media and our culture of “the veneration of excess.”
As with all things Christmas, you can picture that it is possible that cardigans might be involved, but here outward displays of Christmas cheer are less favoured than the introspective approach to the season and all that entails. It is fair to say that this is more Cadfael with a synthesiser than Cliff Richard with a lute.
The first track, The Holly and the Ivy has tinges of the 60s but also there are audible gasps, a throbbing choir and a guitar that paints a feeling of hope in the darkness. It is confident out the gate as a rendition of a tune so strongly associated with its lyrics. It seems to eschew the trappings of the vocals and strips them like the well recognised shell of a walnut in order to examine its insides. The brightness of the guitar strokes along with the woodwind awakens several feelings. Without the lyrics, it is a mythic Winter soundscape, something more spiritual and mournful. It is a cold dark notch put into a frozen tree in the park. It is a delight.
There are other great tracks too. In “The Falcon of Corpus Christi Carol” we get a blend of a well established choir and a songwriter with an ear for the mythic. It is deliciously evocative, the guitar, the melodeon sways like the river reeds. A religious fire for the strength and fear of this season it wears its Middle English origins like a ceremonial sword, perhaps wrapped with a sheath of Bon Iver’s stylings. “Lord of Chaos” is a clear statement of positive intent that wraps up the album like an older, more gold wrapping paper than can be sold in the shops. Placing the listener in the position of wisdom-seeker from a powerful force, an older and less-defined deity, it examines our seeking of something greater that can burn away our traumas. It appears like a New Year’s run in the hills. It is an aura of heat surrounding and propelling us forward when the air is cold and the ground is wet. Also there is “Frost Giant” (with Molly Rymer) is a powerful, lumbering soundscape that takes us into the unfamiliar and the Coventry Carol (with performance by one of our favourite Midlanders, Kim Lowings) brings us back to the warmth of the hearth as he shares the feeling of security and family with a song that links us to Cleverley’s own childhood.
We love Chris Cleverley’s foray into the snow. The strength of this EP is its willingness to sit down and take a mental break this Christmas; it is a sharp intake of breath in the face of a mental challenge. A beautifully constructed and performed piece of work will speak a lot of meaning to a lot of people. With this EP he sets out for gold at the foot of a mountain and instead returns with deep and meaningful answers to questions he had only just contemplated. This will be a part of our Christmas ritual each and every year from now on, and rightly should be a part of your collection.
Further information about Chris and his music can be seen at https://www.chriscleverley.com, which is the best place to obtain “God of All Things”.