8/10

Some experiences shape us without ever becoming visible. A childhood fantasy, an unborn future, the first shock of love or the quiet bond between two people may leave no physical trace, yet each can alter the direction of a life completely. And on his eagerly awaited debut album 'Invisible Things', British songwriter and producer Neon Pilgrim gathers those intangible forces into a reflective, carefully constructed record about everything we cannot touch but continue to carry.

The project marks the beginning of a new public chapter for an artist whose creative life has largely unfolded elsewhere. Through his work with Two Brothers Pictures, Neon Pilgrim has contributed to internationally recognised television dramas including The Missing, Liar, The Tourist, Fleabag and The Assassin. Yet music predates that career, reaching back to songs first written at the age of twelve.

Recorded in the English countryside with Grammy-winning producer Dom Morley, the album retains the closeness of private songwriting while opening into a broader and more cinematic musical space. Contributions from Damon Minchella, Jason McGerr, Ed Harcourt and Amber Wilson give the record an accomplished ensemble foundation, but the arrangements appear designed to support the emotional detail rather than overwhelm it.

At the centre of the project is the idea that childhood once allowed access to an apparently limitless world. Before experience imposes boundaries, imagination can make distant planets, secret kingdoms and alternative lives feel entirely reachable. The astronaut appearing throughout the album’s visual identity captures that early openness, representing a time when the future seemed expansive and possibility had not yet been reduced by caution.

The image originates in ‘Peggy’, written for Neon Pilgrim’s goddaughter. The song looks towards the beginning of a life, imagining the paths that might unfold before a child who has not yet learned to restrict her expectations. Its affection appears to be rooted not only in love for its subject, but in admiration for the imaginative freedom she represents.

Elsewhere, ‘All the Colours’ turns towards the transformative energy of early love. New attraction can alter perception so completely that familiar surroundings appear brighter, stranger and newly significant. The song’s title suggests an expansion of emotional vision; the sudden discovery of shades that seemed unavailable before another person entered the frame.

‘Heartbeat’ introduces a more dangerous variation on that pull. It explores the instinctive attraction towards something beautiful despite an awareness that it may also cause harm. Desire operates beyond reason, creating its own gravity and drawing the narrator closer even when caution suggests retreat.

That conflict between hope and danger gives the record useful tension. 'Invisible Things' is not simply a celebration of emotional connection. It understands that the bonds giving life meaning can also expose people to grief, disappointment and fear. To care deeply is to become vulnerable to forces that cannot always be controlled.

Measured, thoughtful and quietly ambitious, 'Invisible Things' presents Neon Pilgrim as a songwriter interested in the spaces between events and the feelings that remain after the visible action has ended.

The astronaut on the cover may represent childhood possibility, but the album suggests that such wonder never disappears entirely. It survives beneath grief, memory and responsibility, waiting for the right song to bring it back into view.