Jake Morley at Old St Pancras Church

Jake Morley’s Watch Yourself Tour is a mesmeric performance comprised of songs from his new album, The Manual, and some of his favourites from his first album, Many Fish to Fry.

Through slapping, hitting, plucking and strumming the guitar, his set represents a masterclass in how to utilise this instrument to its full potential. Morley’s use of the integral indie tool, the foot loop, provides a haunting backtrack of stripped down vocals and proves himself to be a master of vocal layering.

Either owing to the pure nature of his voice or the fantastic acoustic backdrop a church hall provides, the sound resonates around the stone pillars with ease and echoes to the back of the room, his vocal projection is stunning.

As for the set list, the song progressions provide a narrative to the performance, taking us through his darker martial and escalating to cheery, upbeat and inspiring pieces to finish. In his first half he delivered the heartfelt pieces defining his new album, The Manual, haunting renditions of his new tracks Ghostess and Falter, in the latter he manages to recreate a dreamy harp-esque melody reminiscent of lazy summers, providing a skilfully faultless and silently inspiring piece. In the second act he returns to the crowd and pleases them with Feet Don’t Fail Me Now and Freddie Laid the Smackdown from his first album. The entire audience sings and dances to these firm fan favourites. Punctuated in the middle was an innovative idea for a song where Morley has a conversation with his mind – not only funny but also beautiful.

The likeable and charismatic front man said it took three years to write this set list and it was definitely worth the wait as Morley bounced from hypnotising heartbreak to upbeat and inspiring, quicker than a pinball ricocheting between the pillars at an arcade game. There are high expectations for what this singer-songwriter and master of the guitar provides next.

Melissa Hoban
Photo: Beccy Strong Photography

For further information about Jake Morley and future events visit here. 

Watch the video for Ghostess here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sImu6PAy_rA