Advance Base is the new musical project by Chicago, Illinois singer, songwriter, & producer Owen Ashworth (formerly of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone). A Shut-In's Prayer is Ashworth's first full-length release in over three years, & his first under the name Advance Base. Recorded at home & in piano practice rooms at the Chicago Public Library, A Shut-In's Prayer is an intimate collection of deliberately crafted but decidedly lo-fi torch songs, waltzes & ballads. Ashworth sings nostalgic stories about lost loves, childhood friends, estranged siblings, & hard feelings over simple drum machine rhythms & spare percussion. The arrangements that fill out these ten songs intertwine gentle electric & upright piano melodies, filling the spaces between plainly-sung harmony vocals & strummed autoharp chords, with the occasional creaking floorboard or snapping reverb spring to remind you of the cramped roomswhere this album was recorded. It's a different sound than one might expect from the dude from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, but Ashworth's keen ear for melody & idiosyncratic skill as a lyricist have only improved in recent years, pushing his memorable songwriting in all new directions.