Released towards the end of 2025, this is the second full-length album outing for London-based guitarist, singer and songwriter Dave Renegade and, in one form or another, it contains the full gamut of human emotions.

From the opening strains of ‘Just Because You’re Gone (Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Love You)’, the mournful title track itself plus ‘I Can’t Find You (You’re Not There)’, you can pretty much sense and almost taste the desolation and heartache being described throughout both the words and music which tells you that the writer of these pieces has been experiencing some pretty intense, heavy and very personal issues during the process of bringing ‘Haunted Heart’ to fruition.

<a href="https://daverenegade.bandcamp.com/album/haunted-heart">Haunted Heart by Dave Renegade</a>

And in the CD album’s accompanying text and across the printed lyrics within, the narrative spills out piece by heart wrenching piece; this is all too real and one can only hope that the whole process has served as cathartic and brought some degree of healing to the writer. I’m not comparing this album to the likes of Bill Fay, or Nick Drake or even Johnny Cash but let’s say, for the sake of argument here, that the agonising hurt, the sense of frailty and the level of vulnerability which comes pouring out across many of these songs, regardless if they’re being played in a mellow, folksy Americana styling or with a more gruff, hard-hitting stance or, if they’ve been channeled through a desperately melancholic sounding alt-country setting — I hate both of these terms by the way, Americana and alt-country so they’re only being used here for the sake of convenience — Renegade’s songs most definitely do convey, in a more modern world setting, some of the inherent qualities of such as those past masters. Although, that said, when it comes to the likes of ‘Absent Friends’, ‘Scattering The Ashes (Of Our Love)’, ‘Dark Is The Night’ and closing treatise ‘Shipwrecks (Just You & I)’, it’s fair to say that there’s a timelessness and weightlessness or, contrasting, perhaps a distinct heaviness which simply belies any such restrictive timelines; personal circumstances whether they are joyous or joy-robbing can and do occur anywhere and at any time!

Aside from providing lead vocals on all selections Dave Renegade also features on a variety of electric and acoustic guitars. Lending a hand throughout on guitar, bass guitar, organ, electric piano and piano is friend and the album’s engineer and producer Pete Kosanovich; an aspiring, as well as inspired guitarist, singer and songwriter in his own right.

So, in conclusion, If you’d like to experience some deeply dark, yet pleasingly melodic and melancholic sounds, then make sure you check this one out.

Lenny Helsing

Dave Renegade – ‘Haunted Heart’ (Deadly Romantic Music, 2025)