Will Pope - “Great Dark Leaps”

Will Pope is no stranger to our blog, having already been featured for his previous tracks, “Punchline” and “Rehash.” And as soon as we received his latest release, “Great Dark Leaps,” we knew that he would be featured again, even before we pressed play.

We, of course, did press play (many, many times) and what we found was sheer brilliance– with each new release, Pope outdoes himself. “Great Dark Leaps” begins ethereally, with a hefty amount of reverb that might cause the listener to picture the inside of an empty concert hall, either before a show has begun or after everyone’s gone home for the night. An acoustic guitar creeps in with what sounds like the distant keys of a piano. It is all quite heavenly.

If this is your first time hearing Pope, you should know two things: first, you are going to get some amazing, Chet Atkins-level fingerstyle guitar work. Seriously, it’s as though this man has been blessed by the gods of folk guitar, for no mere mortal should be able to play like this. Secondly, you are going to get an earful of one of the most beautiful voices in the genre. It’s the kind of voice that is bound to have you drawing comparisons to the early work of Bon Iver and the entire catalog of Jeff Buckley.

But “Great Dark Leaps” has been crafted to carry you away from wherever you are, from whatever pain or emotional turmoil you might carry with you. Pope relies on very minimal instrumentation here, letting his voice do all of the lifting and uplifting. Simply press play, close your eyes, and let the layers of harmonies wash over you between every glorious note from that guitar.

-TM