Like most of his previous work, O True Believers may be born of a finite moment of hope in a sea of infinite sadness, a fleeting moment of fragile beauty that extends beyond it's physicality. Unlike past albums, the listener's feeling upon conclusion is more ambiguous: there is no happy and immediate resolution, as if ghosts of the past will find themselves resurfacing time and time again in the future, an idea which is reflected in several reoccurring themes within the songs themselves. Colourful ragas sit next to mournful Fahey-esque refrains, triumphant mountaintop marches besides almost neo- classical chord changes, endlessly repeating until there is only transcendence.
This is James Blackshaw at his most vunerable and sincere and, with that, there comes rare and wonderful qualities to his music: truth and freedom.