R.D. Thomas - What Circus Is This ?

What Circus Is This? is the debut LP from Cornish songwriter/producer R. D. Thomas. Produced remotely in 2021 between home studios in London, Cornwall and Sweden. The record features collaborations with Mickey Smith & Nat Wason (Ben Howard, A Blaze Of Feather) and Rob Hall (Catfish And The Bottlemen) on drum duties. For fans of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Phosphorescent. What Circus.. skirts the dreaded singer-songwriter genre, with a mixture of sincerity and self-deprecation whilst making room for a playful dose of irony. 'Paint By Numbers You' takes a wry smile at modern concerns. 'Sugar Coated Brain' rattles through a 60's style strum, with tongue in cheek to balance more trademark vulnerabilities of moments such as 'This Bloom' and 'Salt'. The penultimate track 'And I'm Gone' would have made for an obvious bookmark to the LP, but it is perhaps more telling that 'Numbers Game' should be the lingering sentiment ; a musing over the contradiction of modern meritocracy, suggesting 'a sense of humour' as a suitable tonic.