 |
Juni Habel's
Evergreen in Your Mind |
As we ease into summer, I’m still enjoying three beautiful recent
releases that arrived in a springtime flurry, like a succession of refreshing musical
April showers. These albums are all by talented female singer-songwriters and, to my
ears at least, they hark back – each in their distinctive ways – to the golden
age of early 1970s folk and pop.
Norwegian Juni Habel’s third album Evergreen in
Your Mind is an exquisite collection with simple but effective
arrangements that would make a perfect soundtrack for snuggling down in your woodland
cabin after a stroll in the rain. Many of the tracks were recorded in
Juni’s home or on the piano at the school where she works. Her songs often have
a plucked, repetitive accompaniment (as typified by the title track) and the
whole effect reminds me of the music of Vashti Bunyan and Bridget St John.
Amy Hopwood’s
Gone to Flowers is an
altogether quirkier affair. It takes a playful approach to various aspects of
mortality. Based on the south coast of England, Amy is a multi-creative –
singer, songwriter, musician and animator – inspired by folklore and fairy
tales, but her songs are nothing if not down-to-earth. The album opens with
‘A
Nice Wooden Bench’: “
But I think I’d quite like a bench / with a lovely old
view of the sea / where strangers can quietly sit / And ponder their mortality... |
Amy Hopwood's
Gone to Flowers |
”
Amy shows her self-deprecating humour in ‘I’d Rather Be Older Than Dead’
while the gorgeous ‘She Became a Bird’ – an unflinching but hopeful song about
death and release – moves me to tears on every listen.
There’s something childlike about Amy’s songs that reminds
me of the music of Melanie (perhaps the use of pianos and recorders, combined
with her whimsicality.) Yet, there’s a wit and wisdom in songs like ‘The
Closest Thing to Holding Hands’ and ‘All Shall Be Well.’ Above all, there’s
comfort and joy in these songs, exemplified by her Mexican Day of the Dead take
on the traditional English folk song ‘Like a Leaf’: “What's the life of us
each any more than a leaf / we all have our seasons so why should we grieve /
for though in this wide world we work and we play / like a leaf we will wither
and must fade away...”
 |
Anna McLuckie's
The Little Winters |
The Little Winters is the title of
AnnaMcLuckie’s new album, named after an American term to describe the late
frosts that arrive during springtime. Anna is an Edinburgh-born nu-folk singer
and player of the
clarsach (Celtic harp.) If you’re expecting something
quite traditional, think again. The rich arrangements, featuring contributions
on bass, cello and banjo, add immense warmth to tracks like ‘New Northern
Lullaby’
and ‘I Promise to Linger’ the
music is as enticing as the cover art, which shows Anna and friends enjoying an
afternoon tea of jam tarts and berries. In some ways,
The Little Winters
is the perfect album for the transition from spring to summer. In the jaunty ‘Jay
Bird,’ Anna sings,
‘summer breaks out, it’ll break out into fever. Time is
easy. I have plenty here...”
Juni, Amy and Anna are all touring the UK currently so try to catch them live if you can but, at the very least, seek out these refreshingly original albums.
- Juni Habel’s Evergreen in Your Mind (Basin Rock)
- Amy Hopwood Gone to Flowers (Self-released)
- Anna McLuckie The Little Winters (Hudson Records)
