Movies & Music Reviews
ANNA CALVI...A REMARKABLE NEW TALENT!
2011-04-08 15:53:10 Posted By: Bill - Archives
The pop charts are full of female singers of dubious quality. If I had to make an analogy, they’re like American cheese; overly processed, individually wrapped in plastic, and produced in large quantities for easy consumption. However, once in a blue moon, there comes around some hand-crafted, smooth, smoked Gouda with a taste so rare it moves the senses. Well, in the landscape of female singers, such a person has just released her first album and her name is Anna Calvi.
Hailing from Britain, Calvi has a voice that sounds as though it emanates from some deep, dark marsh on a hot summer night. Her electric guitar hails from the same mercurial soup with its bluesy, Flamenco edginess that Anna plays with such feeling it’s as though her fingers are connected directly to her heart.
These ingredients combine for 10 remarkable songs on her 2011 eponymous debut album on the Domino label. Because there’s not a weak track on the disc, it’s hard to pick out any single standout songs.
Since Calvi is so accomplished on the guitar, it’s only natural that the album opens with the instrumental “Rider to the Sea” and closes with another guitar (and vocal) masterpiece, the Spaghetti Western-like epic, “Love Won’t Be Leaving”
In between is a mix of songs that are so well-crafted and laced with such depth, feeling and power that the worst part of the album is that each song must end. The hints of sexual ambiguity on the James Bond-ish tune “Suzanne and I” and “I’ll Be Your Man” add additional interest to the album.
Anna Calvi is a remarkable new talent that I can’t recommend enough. A rare treat indeed.
