FEATURE:
A Wonderful Year for Music…
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Poole for Parkwood Entertainment
My Ten Favourite Albums of 2022 (So Far)
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WE are over eight months…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kendrick Lamar
into 2022. It has already been a great year for music. With some amazing albums due before the end of the year, I wanted to use this opportunity to reveal my ten favourite of the year so far. Spanning a range of different genres, I have been really impressed by what 2022 has had to offer! From some lesser-known artists putting out great albums to some mainstream acts delivering some of their best work, there has been plenty of variation and surprise. You might disagree with my choices but here are the ten albums that I consider to be..
IN THIS PHOTO: Gwenno/PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Sharp for Loud and Quiet
THE best of the year.
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Fable – Shame
Release Date: 29th July, 2022
Label: Naim Records
Standout Tracks: Guilt of the Act/Shame/Swarm
Review:
“Holly Cosgrove, known as Fable is an English musician and singer born in Paignton, Devon, and is best known for her work with Archive and Paul Hartnoll from Orbital. Fable is now based in Brighton and releases her debut album `Shame` this month.
The album opens with `Fall Away` with initially piano keys and the singer`s expansive vocals before some orchestrated strings add a fairly cinematic texture to the number. The song is a gentle dreamy introduction to this artist and closes with a piano refrain as it fades. We have in `Womb` a song talks about cycles of emotional states, the repetitive highs and lows that the singer experiences throughout the month. Musically it`s a trippy affair that reminded me of Morcheeba with a quite atmospheric soundscape in the latter section where it really erupts.
`Guilt Of The Act` has a deep bass line and tapped drum skin that lead us along this more breezy pop like offering with harmonies adding to the vocal approach. A track that flourishes and becomes more challenging but not aggressive. The gentle vocals on `Sandcastle` have at times an echoey feel and with the addition of the accompanying backing harmonies become quite mesmeric.
`Heal Yourself` is fairly stripped back which allows Fable to reveal a rich and quite spellbinding vocal range on this initial ethereal offering which bursts into life in the last couple of minutes and takes on a kind of drum and bass sensibility. The title track `Shame` has a rolling groovy soulful openness while the lyrics I read laments the state of the world and the uphill battle this generation faces,
`Orbiting` has that trip-hop, neo soul vibe of bands like Portishead with an almost vulnerability running throughout the vocals. A composition that had a constant back beat with brushed drum cymbals and shuffled along quite dreamily. The number mourns the outward disconnection and isolation of our modern society. A sound similar to wind chimes introduces us to `The Reaper` with vocals that are deep and enticing and leads us along on a journey that you feel is going to explode but doesn`t. The orchestrated strings and aural soundscapes throughout give it a quite futuristic sense and wouldn`t have been out of place in a sci-fi film such as Bladerunner.
`Thirsty` is about taking the beauty of life for granted and begins quietly before emerging into a erratic pop-rock questioning belligerent submission which wouldn`t have been out of place in an Alanis Morrissette set back in her heyday. We have a similar sentiment shared on `Unequal` but with an added disco rhythm, where the lyrical content is shared rapidly and almost robotically.
`Swarm` has a strummed guitar with vocals that evolves with strings and a steady beat joining on this voyage that ebbs and flows as it progresses. The final track `Onion Brain` is more of a jazzy offering with piano, drum and breathy vocals. A gentle number to ease us out with
Fable has a rich and varied vocal range and `Shame` allows her a platform to highlight what she can offer across a variety of tracks that would be classed as trip-hop neo soul. This is a delightful submission for a debut release and it`ll be interesting to follow this artist`s future development” – Maximum Volume Music
Key Cut: Thirsty
Suki Waterhouse – I Can’t Let Go
Release Date: 6th May, 2022
Label: Sub Pop
Standout Tracks: Melrose Meltdown/My Mind/Blessed
Review:
“Every vignette Waterhouse shares is simultaneously stripped-back and sumptuously deep, stunningly put together to focus on the storytelling. Each track is a tale in the same mode as the likes of Lana Del Rey’s Hollywood visions – an easy, seemingly obvious comparison, given the poetry of Waterhouse’s lyrics and the familiar, immersive sprawl of her musicality. It’s there in “Melrose Meltdown”’s polaroid moment of Malibu dreams in a metaphorical getaway car, “Wild Side”’s almost-but-not-quite idealism of a relationship’s moments of turmoil, “Put Me Through It”’s wistful stratospheric beauty.
But hone in closer, looking for specific points to draw comparison between Waterhouse and her contemporaries, the red threads fray a little – this is diaristic and personal on every level, and though comparisons are inevitable, they find themselves feeling defunct in the fact of the humanity that saturates I Can’t Let Go. Because as personal and sometimes painful as it is, it’s also really playful. Waterhouse explores her internal world with a wry smile here and there (“Bullshit On The Internet” is as self-awarely self-indulgent as you can get, and excellently, dreamily so), and isn’t really bothered if people are following, or enraptured, or enchanted. As striking and silky as the lyricism is, Waterhouse isn’t seeking poetic accolades for it, she’s just weaving her words to vocalise a state of being, and then the music to set it to.
Each moment deftly distinguishes itself from what came before, on an album that when you’re not listening to it, shimmers into a continuous ride of smooth, hazy undulations. There’s just enough of a line between cohesion and repetition that leaves I Can’t Let Go feeling like a world of its own without losing precision. “Devil I Know” is a standout, an early moment of sultry punctuation in basslines and hooks; “Slip” closes the album off like a segue into a synthy sunshine-pop, Jack Antonoff-esque production. Waterhouse isn’t just playful with her themes, she’s playful with her communication too.
If I Can’t Let Go does anything, it proves that Waterhouse deserves a spot in the romantic, Tumblr it-girl canon she firmly occupies as a model and an actress, as a musician. Her lyrics are snippets of beauty, her voice is intoxicating, her songwriting is immaculate. But, begrudgingly, I Can’t Let Go proves that Waterhouse may have no inclination to take up her spot in that canon, because this album isn’t for us to dissect and project – it’s a personal soundtrack, a mixtape of years that straddles the gorgeous and the gloomy sides” – The Line of Best Fit
Key Cut: Moves
Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE
Release Date: 29th July
Labels: Parkwood/Columbia
Standout Tracks: ALIEN SUPERSTAR/CHURCH GIRL/AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM
Review:
"Break My Soul" offered much to dissect as the preliminary single off Renaissance, Beyoncé's first solo studio album since Lemonade and part one of a promised three-act project. Integrating a flashback to early-'90s crossover house hit "Show Me Love," the resilience anthem -- reinforced with an echoing gospel choir and sampled Big Freedia exhortations -- came across like a nostalgic dance remix preceding the original version. Instead, it slid neatly into place on the parent LP not only as an accurate representation but also as a foreshock to an hour-long housequake filled with irrepressible exuberance in celebration of self and sisterhood. Among those to whom Beyoncé dedicates Renaissance is her late gay cousin and godmother, Uncle Jonny, credited for introducing her "to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album." The multitude of dancefloor sounds cultivated and celebrated since the late '60s in underground clubs by liberation-seeking gay, Black, and Latino dancers has been a natural ingredient in Beyoncé's recordings since the birth of Destiny's Child (take the use of the Love Unlimited Orchestra's proto-disco exemplar "Strange Games & Things" in "No, No, No, Pt. 2"), but it is the basis of Renaissance. The LP is top-to-bottom danceable and sequenced with each track setting up the next, through the ecstatic finale, where Beyoncé most potently mixes sensuality and aggression, claiming her man with nods to Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley, and Larry Heard. "Cuff It" is a disco-funk burner with Nile Rodgers' inimitable rhythm guitar and a slick quote from Teena Marie's biggest ballad, though it has all the vigor of Lady T's uptempo classics. The more relaxed "Virgo's Groove" is designed for circling the rink with its delectably plump bassline and handclaps, and moves to a private room where Beyoncé commands, in one of the set's many memorable turns of phrase, "Motorboat, baby, spin around." Renaissance pulls from the more recent and present sonic developments with equal guile. Dancehall-derived dembow is stretched out for the strutting opener "I'm That Girl." "Heated" works a chugging Afrobeats rhythm, and is keenly trailed by the swollen dubstep pulsations of "Thique." The most exciting moments fearlessly blend and switch eras. "Pure/Honey" alternates between a duly vulgar ballroom brush-off and pop-funk rapture, and "Church Girl," a rousing gospel-bounce marvel, weaves the Clark Sisters with the decidedly less-reverent DJ Jimi and the Showboys. Beyoncé is vocally up to the challenge of juggling the almost-innumerable quantity of styles and references, sighing, purring, beaming, belting, and spitting fire with all the required conviction and attitude. Her congregation of fellow writers, producers, and vocalists is a formidable assembly of close collaborators (the-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Mike Dean, NOVA Wav), younger trailblazers (Honey Dijon, Kelman Duran, Tems), and legends (Grace Jones, Raphael Saadiq). Act II will presumably have at least one ballad. They're not missed here” – AllMusic
Key Cut: I’M THAT GIRL
Kelly Lee Owens - LP.8
Release Date: 29th April
Label: Smalltown Supersound
Standout Tracks: Release/Voice/Sonic 8
Review:
"Kelly Lee Owens has called her third album an “outlier”, reflecting ‘LP. 8’s sonic shift towards bracing, industrial sounds. In contrast, her second album, the magnificent ‘Inner Song’, offered club-ready techno-pop for the head and heart and was created after the artist experienced a period of personal loss.
Having travelled to Oslo in the winter of 2020 when her world tour was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Welsh singer, producer and songwriter got in the studio with Norwegian avant-noise artist Lasse Marhaug (known for her work with drone metal band Sunn O)))). The pair envisioned making music somewhere in between Throbbing Gristle and Enya and, with the record’s tougher moments further sharpened by studio heads Cherif Hashizume (who’s worked with Jon Hopkins) and Beau Thomas (Aphex Twin), they created an album both beautiful and challenging.
Techno-leaning opener ‘Release’ gradually builds tension with metronomic pounding and Owens’ repeated instruction to “release” as she exhales heavily over shivery whispers. It all adds up to an ethereal, slightly unsettling five minutes – a fitting introduction to the ominous, nine-track record. ‘Voice’, meanwhile, sees Owens’ faint voice float across an intricate soundscape of mystic, celestial noise and hippie-twangs, conjuring a psychedelic trip.
Time and again, Owens creates intricate and emotive world-building through patient instrumental layering. Built on fire-like crackles and a buzzing synth, ‘S.O (2)’ sees Owens’ heavenly choral-style vocal really take flight, soaring over beautiful chords, while the intimate ‘Nana Piano’ strips things back to five-and-a-half minutes of moving piano keys.
‘LP. 8’s final three tracks carry a strong message: the desperate need to take action on climate change. At first built on static fuzzes and a distorted vocal, ‘Quickening’ sees Owens deliver a typically thought-provoking spoken-word call to arms: “Your business is to keep it yours, clearly, and directly / To keep the channel open,” before letting out a pained cry that could be interpreted as Earth’s final gasp for breath” – NME
Key Cut: Quickening
Nova Twins – Supernova
Release Date: 17th June
Label: Marshall Records
Standout Tracks: Antagonist/Puzzles/Choose Your Fighter
Review:
"Nova Twins’ 2020 debut Who Are The Girls? was something of a noisy origin story. A cataclysmic fusion of punk swagger and attitude, Amy Love and Georgia South emerged as sonic-shifting future rock stars. Now, on their second record , they are no longer the fringe bad bitch baddies hoping to be heard – they’re ready to be worshipped.
There’s plenty of spirit in Supernova. Intro track Power is a punchy precursor to the record. Kitted out with gut-thumping drums and slick harmonies, it’s a beefed-up forewarning of what’s to come: ‘Welcome to the end / And your new beginning.’ It’s clear from the get-go that Nova Twins mean business. Frontrunner Antagonist is a polished maximalist rap-rock anthem, while Cleopatra crashes in oozing confidence and attitude. It’s a statement of due worth, and rightfully so. The Twins transform into boot-stomping monarchs soundtracked against glitchy punk electronica and guitars backed by a mantra of inclusivity: ‘Blacker than the leather, that’s holding our boots together,’ Amy raps, with razor-sharp flow. ‘If you rock a different shade, we come under the same umbrella.’
Elsewhere, Nova Twins have notably finessed their textured, joyously unkept sound, but it’s amongst the punkish mayhem they really thrive. Kicking off with an Eminem-style mischievous intro, K.M.B (Kill My Boyfriend) is a Disney-esque dark-rap fantasy that would easily please the Brothers Grimm. Splattered with pitched vocals and Jennifer’s Body-inspired storytelling it’s a quirky, playful song showcasing their range for more than a monster beat.
Latter tracks Enemy, Toolbox and Choose Your Fighter are ferociously tied together as the duo survey their prey and get ready to strike. A Dark Place For Something Beautiful digs deep into the talent of Amy and Georgia’s songwriting. Briefly, we see the duo armourless and letting their guard down as vulnerability washes. ‘Sink or swim there’s no peace of mind / Promise I’ll be stronger next time,’ Amy sings.
It’s the final puzzle piece that supports Supernova’s flow as a fully-fledged emotional portrait of the Twins. Closeout track Sleep Paralysis snuffs out the noise as we drift off into a menacing electronica lullaby. Straddling between daydreams and nightmares, they pull off a convincing otherworldly exit track.
Aptly titled, Supernova sees Nova Twins burning brighter than ever with their gloriously self-made sound. It’s no surprise that the English duo have supported fellow trailblazers Bring Me The Horizon and Little Simz during their reign as one of the UK’s most ingenious new rock bands. Supernova basks in its own raw originality and kicks any naysayers to the curb with its unforgettable impact” – KERRANG!
Key Cut: Cleopatra
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Release Date: 8th April
Label: Domino
Standout Tracks: Chaise Longue/Wet Dream/Supermarket
Review:
"‘Chaise Longue’ kicked it all off, and it remains as riveting, perplexing, and addictive as the first time we heard it. The half-spoken lyrics tumble out of the stereo – “excuse me?” – leading to post-punk comparison points, with Wet Leg often aligned against groups such as Yard Act, say. Taken a whole, however, their debut album proves this to be reductive – they’ve got more in common with Jarvis Cocker and Franz Ferdinand – or the songwriting, but not the actual sound, of Pet Shop Boys – sitting in that vein of artful British pop, renewing older ideas by viewing them from fresh perspectives.
Indeed, album highlight ‘Anjelica’ isn’t a post-punk song at all – the nagging guitar riff nods towards vibrant ’67 psych-pop, while the oh-so-cute vocal could sit on a Sarah Records 45. As mystifying as some of the in-jokes can be, the album is often staggeringly blunt – witness the rubbish boyfriend diss ‘Ur Mum’ or the self-explanatory ‘Piece Of Shit’, which blends Breeders-esque guitar pop with the hazy glow of 2k22 production.
A staggering effective 12 shot volley, Wet Leg’s debut album scarcely lets the pace drop. ‘Wet Dream’ teases out the psychology behind a “just thinking of you…” text, while ‘Loving You’ drops the angular guitars and the neat lyrical about-turns for something rather more heart-on-sleeve, but no less effective. An album that often wraps it emotions in self-effacing humour and oblique reference points, Wet Leg end their debut with the sparkling ‘Too Late Now’, in which spacious production – if anything it’s more Explosions In The Sky post-rock than the dry intensity of post-punk – blends with endless self-questioning, each spark of introversion piled up on the next. To cite another psychedelic reference, it’s akin to the implosion of Syd Barrett on the Pink Floyd’s ‘Jugband Blues; “I’m not sure if this the kind of life that I see myself leading…”
Refreshing and totally natural, it’s been curious to watch a nascent backlash form against Wet Leg. TikTok – a hub for cynicism and trolls – has dubbed them an ‘industry plant’, and this framework has begun to seep into the music press. Looking online, some question the duo’s standout styling, as if wearing half-decent clothes was such a character flaw. Yes, their rise has been sudden, but some groups really are that good. Put aside your cynicism, and dial into the fireworks: ‘Wet Leg’ is an exceptional debut album. 9/10” – CLASH
Key Cut: Angelica
Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
Release Date: 13th May
Labels: PGLang/TDE/Aftermath/Interscope
Standout Tracks: N95/We Cry Together (with Taylour Paige)/Mr. Morale (with Tanna Leone)
Review:
"There are various reasons why Kendrick Lamar has established himself as the best rapper of the 21st century: the ultra-smooth flow, the ability to be challenging yet accessible, the political engagement, the social conscience that led him to becoming a key voice of the Black Lives Matter movement. There is also the feeling that he’s trying to do something bigger than himself, compounded on his latest album by quotes from the German spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle popping up here and there. There is another reason that doesn’t get talked about so much, however: the quality of the music.
Rap is primarily a word form driven by rhythm, but the music Lamar engages with is so rich and varied, so exploratory yet also filled with hooks and melodies, that even people who thought they hated rap can get pulled in. Take Mother I Sober, a plaintive piano ballad featuring a woman rarely associated with the tough world of hip-hop: Beth Gibbons of the Bristol trip-hop pioneers Portishead. After Lamar raps in sombre tones about sexual abuse, making mistakes, his relationship with Christianity and the need for ego death in the face of fame, Gibbons provides the most delicate vocal delivery ever found on a rap album, ever. It’s beautiful.
Lamar broke through to the world stage with 2015’s To Pimp a Butterfly, an album that embraced a new generation of jazz musicians blossoming in America. The hard-hitting Damn followed in 2017, and became the first nonclassical or jazz album to win a Pulitzer prize. Mr Morale . . . is more reflective and troubled than both, with the personal becoming the political as Lamar faces up to himself and weighs the cost of becoming a public figure on both his family and his psychology. We Cry Together features a furious (and filthy) argument between his wife (played by the actress Taylour Paige) against a discordant piano, with Paige screaming, “You love a pity party!” before ending up blaming him for Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and pretty much every other ill of modern America.
The profane goes up against the spiritual throughout. United in Grief puts a frantic, skittering beat against soaring strings for a tale of Lamar wondering what on earth his material success is for — “I bought infinity pools I never swimmed in” — in the face of the violent deaths of people from his old neighbourhood. Worldwide Steppers even puts a new-found interest in reincarnation, past-life regression and praying “to the flowers and trees” against memories of sleeping with wealthy white women and wondering if the simmering resentment and self-hatred it brought was a product of his own racism. Given that Lamar is a huge name and a soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner, this is uncompromising, brave material: Purple Hearts — with Summer Walker and Ghostface Killah — even goes into psychedelic jazz territory. When a radio hit of sorts, Die Hard, comes along, complete with a sugary R&B vocal spot from Amanda Reifer, it sticks out as the least interesting song on here.
The main feeling you get from Mr Morale & the Big Steppers, beyond its musical adventurousness, is that Kendrick Lamar is constantly checking himself. Any seeming boast comes with a caveat; every statement of aggression is turned on its head. This is a masterpiece, but a complicated, troubled one. (Top Dawg)” – The Sunday Times
Key Cut: Mother I Sober (featuring Beth Gibbons)
Florence + The Machine – Dance Fever
Release Date: 13th May
Label: Polydor
Standout Tracks: Free/Back in Town/Prayer Factory
Review:
"It’s very easy to pick at Florence + The Machine’s trademark dynamics. Witchy, earthy, fairytale vibes delivered with a voice that could level a city block, being iconic should never be seen as a bad thing.
Opener ‘King’ sees Welch putting it all on the table, like the forced restraint of pandemic era lockdowns has left her with an excess of raw power to expel at the first possible opportunity. Follow up ‘Free’ runs like a jackhammer, pounding at the walls as it smashes through to open fields. Though working with two ‘name’ producers – the now ubiquitous Jack Antonoff and Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley – there’s no doubt as to who is in control here. Both get the opportunity to add flourish or guide the path, but Welch is the one with her foot on the accelerator.
That’s not to say everything is all the way up to eleven. ‘Choreomania’ builds to its climax, questioning “you said rock and roll is dead, but is that just because it has not been resurrected in your image?” as it ascends into near-religious euphoria. ‘Back In Town’ and ‘Girls Against God’ take a more serene route, but even they yearn for escape – the former based around a post-pandemic trip to New York, the latter promising “if they ever left me out, I’m gonna really let it out”. Even those quieter moments yearn for the bigger ones. Proof that absence can make the heart grow fonder, ‘Dance Fever’ is an album straining at its leash, dreaming of the freedom of the dancefloor. Now it’s here, there’s no holding back” – DORK
Key Cut: King
Gwenno – Tresor
Release Date: 1st July
Label: Heavenly
Standout Tracks: Anima/N.Y.C.A.W./Kan Me
Review:
"Gwenno Saunders’ new album Tresor is her second record sung almost entirely in Cornish, a Celtic language that bloomed around 600 C.E., and which the mothers of Cornwall passed down to their daughters for over a thousand years before the English more or less forced them to stop. Dolly Pentreath, purportedly the last fluent native speaker, died in 1777. But in 2010, the United Nations upgraded the status of Cornish from “extinct” to merely “critically endangered,” reflecting the work of the Cornish Language Partnership in standardizing written and spoken grammar for a community of about 300 speakers. The CLP also contributed to the opening of a Cornish-language nursery school, where, according to a news report, toddlers learn “to share their tegennow and play nicely in the polltewas.” Tresor, says Gwenno, is a record about her experience of becoming a mother, as well as a follow-up to her 2018 LP Le Kov, lauded for bringing Cornish to wider attention. It’s as though, having turned to face the public and taught them all she knows of this new-old language, she is relishing the opportunity once denied to Dolly Pentreath: to pass her linguistic heritage to her child.
The daughter of a Welsh mother and a Cornish father, Gwenno rose from the ashes of the retro-pop girl group the Pipettes to become an esoteric experimentalist. Every lyric on her solo albums, even the ones that cite Jung or obscure science fiction authors, is written in Cornish or Welsh. She records with close friends in rustic seaside cottages, and her artistic and activist goals are one: “Nid yw Cymru ar werth,” she sings, which translates as “Wales is not for sale.”
But Gwenno is in the business of pop artistry, not broccoli-boiling, so Tresor’s touch is light and breezy, even as its songs dive into analytical psychology, the patriarchy, the colonizer lurking up and to the right. Her richly layered instrumentation in “Anima” calls to mind Cate Le Bon, with a few more chimes and woodwinds, and a bit more space for Gwenno’s ghostly backing vocal to linger behind her melody. The riffs of “N.Y.C.A.W.” would be at home on U2’s October, as would the righteous insistence of its militant chanting.
Other moments are gentler, and more tender. The beautiful, ethereal opener “An Stevel Nowydh” begins with Gwenno welcoming listeners into her home, and singing, in Cornish: “Welcome, sit down/Fancy a cuppa?/How are you?” What a rare thing, to be welcomed so warmly into a world one knows little about, and to be won over. “When will you hear me?” Gwenno sings, in “Ardamm,” in a language spoken by, at most, a few hundred people. “When will you understand me?” In technical terms, very few listeners can understand her—but on some more vital, human level, anyone who spends time with Tresor will require no translation at all” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Tresor
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – For All Our Days That Tear the Heart
Release Date: 10th June
Label: EMI Records
Standout Tracks: The Eagle & the Dove/Footnotes on the Map/I Cried Your Tears
Review:
"Is pain the most valuable of all feelings? This is a question that underpins Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler’s collaboration. Both artists have come to this record with singular histories — Buckley as an Oscar-nominated actor, and Butler, formerly of Suede, then a solo star — yet there is a cogent sensibility.
Part of this collaboration is down to Butler’s manager, who introduced the pair, feeling that there might be a sympathy. It is perhaps to be found in the Irish connection, but also a shared love of artists from Nina Simone to Pentangle to Talk Talk. They have previously spoken of wanting people to discover the record “as if they have tripped across a box of photographs in the back of their closet”, and there is certainly something mysterious and fundamental at work.
The Eagle and the Dove opens with fierce intention, a work that seems to dance on a kind of musical tension, with Buckley’s impressive vocal sweeping and soaring, interrogating darkly lit corners, and Butler’s playing at once complex and understated. The album folds in so many elements — elevated folk, classical, blues and rock — and there are lovely moments everywhere. From the lonely-sounding trumpet and piano melody in For All Our Days That Tear the Heart that frames Buckley’s assertion that “we want to be things we’re not”, it is all orchestral intimacy. The sea-shanty folk of 20 Years A-Growing (inspired by Maurice O’Sullivan’s 1933 memoir) mirrors the elegant sadness of Shallow the Water, and The beautiful Seven Red Rose Tattoos is built upon a sense of contradiction, where “sunbathing in the rain” is posited as a natural state of affairs.
Contradiction is everywhere, going back to that central question about the value of pain. How do we know if it has been worth it? Babylon Days tries to answer, as Buckley’s supple voice flies optimistically around Butler’s evocative guitar, and the softness of the reedy fiddle on Footnotes on the Map complements its strident male choir. A bluesy sway adorns We’ve Run the Distance and I Cried Your Tears, and Beautiful Regret shows the range of Buckley’s voice, where she is reminiscent of Karen Carpenter, or on We Haven’t Spoken About the Weather, where perhaps Feist fronts Kings of Convenience. But the doleful vocal intelligence is all her own.
Catch the Dust is an affectingly wheezing prayer to “catch the dust of a memory from a photograph”, that dust evocative of a time once-lived, that life is a precious, fleeting gift, and even amid pain, still remains compelling” – The Irish Times
Key Cut: For All Our Days That Tear the Heart