Kevin Olken Henthorn has spent the past half-decade crafting quiet but intricate bedroom pop, gradually expanding and contracting his sound over the years. After a previous band fell through, he began the Cape Francis project as a way to express his creative energy, forging a creative partnership with producer and engineer Ariel Loh. 
 After his third record, the reverb-drenched, winding Plateaus, Henthorn wanted to strip back, creating songs he could play by himself without requiring a full band. Writing during a lengthy early-pandemic move to Silver Lake with his partner, what started out as a back-to-basics record gradually became quietly ambitious, as Henthorn challenged himself to write more directly: "I used to created hoops for myself to say something in a more masked way, I wanted to say what I wanted to say. And if it's cheesy, it's cheesy." 
 On Don’t Let Your Heart Walk Away, Henthorn accidentally resulted in a cross-country chamber pop record that’s still achingly intimate, and his best to date. The new songs may be stripped back, but the sparseness makes every element feel more significant and surprising. 
 In its own unassuming way, Don’t Let Your Heart Walk Away is something of a mini-epic about overcoming personal issues to love another person - impressive for an album with such simple intentions.