7/10

There’s a quiet electricity running through 'Between the Shadows', the new album from Glasgow-based songwriter and producer Jonni Slater. It shimmers, hums, and flickers at the edges of consciousness, like sunlight refracted through rain. With this project, Slater cements his reputation as one of Scotland’s most evocative musical storytellers, weaving cinematic soundscapes and poetic introspection into something that feels both intimate and grand in scope.

Across the record’s twelve tracks, the artist wrestles with the dualities of human experience. The album’s title, drawn from a lyric about captivity and perception, becomes a thesis statement that only by confronting the darkness can we truly understand the light. It’s a sentiment that threads through each song, whether in the whispered melancholy of 'Things We Didn’t Say' or the sweeping catharsis of 'Super'.

Sonically, 'Between the Shadows' sits at the crossroads of chamber pop, alt-rock, and modern cinematic composition. He balances the warmth of piano-led arrangements with lush, atmospheric layers, with guitars and synths bleeding into each other like colour on film. The result is an album that feels handcrafted, each note shaped with empathy and intention. You can sense the lineage of artists like Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk, and The National in its DNA, but what sets him apart is his painterly sense of pacing, and the way he lets space, silence, and resonance do as much storytelling as his lyrics.

At its heart, this record is about empathy for the past versions of ourselves we can never quite return to. 'Between the Shadows' is a cinematic dream rendered in melody and memory, reminding us that even in the darkest corners, light still waits to be found.