Has It Been A While?

Trust Fund, the musical project of singer-songwriter Ellis Jones, returns this year with a fifth album, Has It Been A While?, recorded earlier this year in Sheffield by producer and close friend Joe Mackenzie Todd, and released on Tapete Records. His return reflects a realization that his music-making days continue to stretch out before him, and marks the development of a mature style that offers both continuity and change. While previous Trust Fund albums have foregrounded a fuzzy, indie-rock aesthetic, on Has It Been A While?, Jones strips his songs down to classical guitar and vocals, supported by captivating string quartet arrangements provided by Maria Grig. Trust Fund’s lyrical dexterity remains, and is showcased here on tracks such as "The Mirror" (a duet with Radiant Heart’s Celia MacDougall), whose vainglorious protagonist would gladly “use the mirror as TV”. For Jones, the key challenge of the record was creating