Gloomy songs for funerals from A.A.Williams of the Anna Calvi on downers sensibility on her debut album Forever Blue. Apparently post-rock and post-classical according to her artist's page on Bella Union, though I have no idea what either of those terms actually mean, this is actually fairly generic music for people who like to dress in black and live in candle lit dwellings, but not without its small dark virtues.
Big on atmospherics but low on surprises, the record shifts onward at pallbearer's tread, occasionally letting out a primal wail to break the mood. I'm reluctant to give it a glowing review because it's not a remarkable record but it is an artfully constructed one. Certainly good enough to reserve Williams a seat on the pew along from Thom Yorke and P.J.Harvey, and in between Nice Cave and Morticia Adams at the next midnight mass, or better still full on wake.
Perhaps my tone is inappropriately glib. This is by no means a bad album, in fact it's a pretty good one . It's just unwilling to break the rules of many records of a similar stripe that we've heard already. Perhaps best dipped into than experienced at a single sitting. It has its pretty moments but is perhaps less profound and intense than it believes itself to be quite yet. Perhaps her next record will be the one to listen to. I'll give this seven.
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