Rating: 5/5
Review:
Remarkably good
This is a remarkably good album. Lucy Ward writes and sings original and very good songs which have real musical and lyrical substance and are also very good to listen to. Some, like For The Dead Men, have direct and stark political lyrics rather like the young, angry Billy Bragg. Others - Icarus, Honey and Velvet Sky among them - deal with relationships and more personal matters and are very beautiful, and some, like The Last Pirouette, are surreal and allusive but are no less powerful. There are also some strong echoes of traditional English folk in places, including a couple of traditional songs. It's excellent, varied material and it has a real depth to it.
Lucy Ward has a fine voice and can put over a song with genuine passion and emotion. Personally, I love hearing her strong Derbyshire vowels and am delighted that she hasn't adopted the bland, mid-Atlantic performing accent which is so prevalent in the pop world. She's a good guitarist and the production here is excellent; it is quite rich at times but always to the service of the song, and it allows the material to really shine.
I think this is an album of real quality, and it's one which I will be playing and enjoying for many years, I think. Very strongly recommended.
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