About

Tom Misch was one of the U.K.'s prime bedroom producers when he delivered Geography in 2019. The guitar-playing singer/songwriter won fans across the globe with his seamless meld of pop, jazz, dance grooves, and Dilla-esque hip-hop. Following, he received invitations from dozens of musicians and labels. The pressure became excessive and punishing; Misch felt like he was losing himself. He went into a self-imposed retreat as he explored renewal and relaxation: learning to surf, traveling, and reuniting with family and friends.

Full Circle marks his return to full-scale recording. The album sounds like a sunny, breezy, warm spring day. Misch composed these 11 tunes on piano and guitar; he then took them to Nashville where Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk, and others helped develop them with a studio band, analog tape machines, and vintage Neumann microphones. The end result is a polished, earthy, modern take on '70s era singer/songwriter dates by Joni Mitchell, Terry Callier, and John Martyn.

Opener "Flowers in Bloom" is the album's manifesto and guiding light. Strummed electric guitars and hand percussion solicit Misch's plaintive, expressive voice: "Took some time just to heal my mind/Took a train to the countryside…Went back to the beginning/Just to find it deep within me …." Warm synths frame his vocal as the bassline flits in the margins. "Red Moon," a love song, offers a slightly tropical vibe with a downbeat snare, hi-hat shuffle, and bubbling wah-wah guitar around wispy synths. "Slow Tonight" is another. Using a hooky rhythm track inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," the song's protagonist escapes urban bedlam on Friday night: "Baby, we could take it slow tonight/Take it off overdrive/Come to mine and dim the lights … From the moon until the morning light/Just you and me…." Misch's aesthetic remains close to his roots with sparse, tasteful production. 

"Old Man" is a poignant reverie on aging: "Look in the mirror it's hazy/Who is that figure before me/He looks a bit like my old man …." “Running Away” inverts changes and cadences from the Beatles' "Blackbird" with soulful rhythms painted by lovely acoustic guitars. "Echo from the Flames" employs a jazzy Latin guitar vamp, vibes, and a poetic lyric. The album's only guest spot is by saxophonist and co-composer Kaidi Akinnibi on closer "Days of Us." 

His John Klemmer-esque circular lines introduce Misch's singing as guitars, piano, strings, and drums surround the broken-hearted protagonist: "And can't you stay?/Let's meet halfway … 'Cause we need our time to grow/No matter where we go/You'll always feel like home …" as the tune walks further into the ether before emerging with hopeful resolve. While some may find Full Circle too relaxed, most will rejoice in Misch's graceful, musical charting of personal growth and changing emotions. If there's a soundtrack for spring's regeneration and rebirth, Full Circle is it. — (via AllMusic)
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In the years following his rise, Misch backed away from music entirely. Burnout crept in. So did a growing sense of lost identity tied to incessant output. He quietly left the studio behind and immersed himself in the rhythm of everyday life. Full Circle was born from an extended period of living at home, reconnecting with family, and rediscovering who he was before tour schedules and industry expectation. It’s a familiar enough trope in contemporary artistry but ‘Full Circle’ distinguishes itself from the crowd in how thoroughly it internalised that break. Rather than tout a triumphant return, Misch opts for a soft re-entry. The result is a record that feels rooted. In its sense of self, yes, but also in the relationships and environments that sustained him during that break. — (via CLASH)

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Misch wrote these songs on piano and guitar first, then brought them to Nashville, where Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian helped develop them with a live band and tape machines and a vintage Neumann U47 microphone. The north star he cites is the kind of 1970s singer-songwriter LP your parents owned on vinyl. Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, John Martyn, JJ Cale. The leap is steep. On “Old Man,” Misch sings about noticing grey hairs and seeing his father’s face in the mirror, imagining a great-great-great-grandson catching flights long after he’s gone. The melody is spare and the lyric is plain, and neither of those things are weaknesses. There’s nothing between you and what he’s saying. “This dressing room is all I know,” he admits in the second verse, and the line carries the resignation of someone taking stock of the only life he’s had.

The love songs scatter in different directions. “Red Moon” asks a celestial body to intervene with a woman whose heart he can’t reach on his own, and the pleading has a formality to it, an old-fashioned quality, a man on his knees talking to the sky. “Slow Tonight” is the opposite. It opens on a Friday night, sirens and flashing lights, then snaps domestic:

“You say, ‘I don’t like your friends that much’
Well, I love them all if it’s once a month
When we’re alone, I just can’t get enough
It may be unhealthy, I don’t give a fuck.”

That’s the loosest, funniest moment on the album, and it’s also the most uptempo. “Goldie” drops the humor completely. Someone pulled him out of a terrible place, and he can barely articulate the gratitude beyond naming it. “I started to think that you didn’t exist/Who the hell do I thank for this” is the closest Misch gets to overwhelmed on the whole record, and his voice stays level through it.

“Sultan of Silence” closes the album’s emotional argument without closing it. The song paints a figure who never speaks “(He walks where echoes die/He knows the weight of every stone”). A father, a mentor, a version of himself he hasn’t become yet. It doesn’t explain. “Days of Us,” with Kaidi Akinnibi’s saxophone weaving through a two-voice conversation about distance, is the only collaborative one, and it earns its placement because two people are genuinely talking past each other. “Can’t you stay?/Let’s meet halfway,” says one voice. “Despite the rain,/Can’t we try?” says the other. They want the same thing and can’t agree on how to get there. Misch recorded the saxophone part back at Unwound Studios in Deptford, when Akinnibi dropped by and started playing. That looseness, someone walking in, and the tape rolling, is Full Circle in miniature. The record bets that a song written on guitar and sung in a clear, unadorned voice can carry the weight of a person’s worst years, and the bet is a good one. — (via Shattered Standards)

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Label: Beyond The Groove
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2026
Genre: Funk / Soul, Folk, Rock
Stye: Male Vocals

File under: Funk / Soul
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