CD: Mara Carlyle - Floreat | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Mara Carlyle - Floreat
CD: Mara Carlyle - Floreat
Rescued from three years on the shelf, this may be amongst 2011's best
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Mara Carlyle's 'Floreat': emotive songs performed affectingly
It opens quietly, with swelling strings that evoke Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave. After they give way to a jazzy percussion and wordless vocal interplay, Carlyle declares, “I used to sleep/ Too many secrets to keep”. Floreat itself was almost a secret, almost not released. Thankfully, this dream of an album is now coming out. Seamlessly roaming across jazz, Cajun music, English classicism, show-tune styles and electronica, Floreat is one of this year’s benchmark releases.
It opens quietly, with swelling strings that evoke Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave. After they give way to a jazzy percussion and wordless vocal interplay, Carlyle declares, “I used to sleep/ Too many secrets to keep”. Floreat itself was almost a secret, almost not released. Thankfully, this dream of an album is now coming out. Seamlessly roaming across jazz, Cajun music, English classicism, show-tune styles and electronica, Floreat is one of this year’s benchmark releases.
rating
Share this article
Add comment
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more New music
Bob Vylan, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - self-proclaimed most important band in the UK blow the roof off
Political punk-rappers see the weekend out with a bang
Album: Møster! - Springs
Norwegian supergroup merges jazz with rock’s outer edges
Music Reissues Weekly: Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Singles
Plugging a gap in the story of the soul giant
Album: Chuck Prophet - Wake the Dead
Rock'n'roll master dances past the graveyard with cumbia rhythms and quizzically cocked eyebrow
Album: Willie Nelson - Last Leaf on the Tree
The 91-year-old’s 153rd album is more than a farewell to arms – it’s a late-career classic
Album: The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Sadness and finality have rarely felt so life-affirming
Album: Peter Perrett - The Cleansing
Depth, humour and bucket loads of cool from the former Only One
Book Extract: Where Songs Come From - The Lyrics and Origin Stories of 150 Solo and Carter USM Songs by Jim Bob
Jim Bob introduces a chapter from his new book, a combined autobiography, lyrical overview and love letter to London
Album: Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came
Quirky indie with a Halloween twist from legends of the genre Pixies
Music Reissues Weekly: Gerry and the Pacemakers - I Like It! Anthology 1963-1966
How the key Merseybeat hitmakers were left behind as pop moved on
Album: Halsey - The Great Impersonator
The US star muses on mortality via channelling her musical heroines
Album: Underworld - Strawberry Hotel
Contagiously joyous rollercoaster from Smith and Hyde
Comments
...