A rather lovely, nuanced record to bring down the curtain on what's been a pretty damned great month all round musically considering it's January. It's the eponymous record from Anais Mitchell, eponymous although she's a stalwart recording artist of many years now though she's probably kept it simple as she's been away for a while.
Each song here is built on the firmest foundations. Impeccable songwriting gifts, emotional drive and commitment, embracing life to the absolute full. It's theatrical in nature, not unnaturally as Mitchell has a huge Broadway success under her belt.
But it's highly musically grounded, essentially in the British and American Folk traditions. Nick Drake's riff for Northern Sky, is delightfully replicated during Revenant. Mitchell comes on as the idealised New York girlfriend, some parts Regina Spektor, some parts Suzanne Vega and the record altogether has the most radiant warmth.
Once the record establishes momentum it maintains it with easy grace. It's an album that exists in a definite tradition but its intimate respect and understanding of that tradition ticks all of the boxes you might want if you have a fondness for this thing.The formula becomes so apparent a few tracks in that perhaps it doesn't fully stay the course but listened to a few tracks at a time, it's highly impressive.
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