There are also interludes and phone recordings littered throughout that posit God Save the Gun as the most indulgent of pursuits: the concept album. Shelton has always used rehabilitation and redemption as primary muses, considering whether the carceral or 12-step versions can truly offer any lasting change. In the past, he's done so as an invested outsider, writing about his brother's incarceration and his experience as an auditor at AA meetings.
The opening sequence is extraordinary: a nun drops to the floor in devotion, hidden under the swathes of black habit puddling across the stone floor. There is more of this to come in photographer Alys Tomlinson and film-maker Cecile Embleton's beautiful black and white documentary. It is film of stillness, long, long takes and careful framing and would look at home playing on the walls of an art gallery.
