Just one of those things, I suppose. You hear an album – Isobel Heyworth’s debut “Close Your Eyes” – and it becomes one of your favourites. So much so that you don’t even notice that she released a follow up album and that is why it has taken so long for me to write words on “The Attic Recordings”.
Sometimes you know you are listening to something special. A little musical gem if you like and it didn’t take long to realise that my critical facilities were being surreptitiously bypassed by this labum and, as each song passed through my ears into my consciousness, it became apparent that I had been enchanted. Isobel Heyworth’s voice possess a near spiritual quality that is paralleled with an appealing fragility that bears comparison with the great female folk singers like Shelagh Mcdonald or Sandy Denny and this is most evident on “London Town”. I can think of few other voices that could express the sheer wistfulness on show here and with the understated, and entirely appropriate, musical support your heart would indeed have to be made of stone if you were not to be moved. This effect would be transitory if it were not for the intelligence shown in the lyrics. Ms Heyworth shows unusual empathy in the words of “I Take My Hat Off To You” and even when she wears her heart on her sleeve as in “Song With No Name”, there is never any cloying sentimentality to cloud the clarity of her emotions.
I’m trying to think of how to summarise this album – fragile beauty in an ugly musical world perhaps? An ode to the mind from the heart? I’ll never be a poet obviously but nonetheless this is an album that you should seek out and cherish.
Reviewed on vinyl but, as the CD came with the LP, the opportunity was taken for a side by side comparison regarding sound quality. The CD was a bit brighter but lost out on both dynamic range and at the bottom end to the vinyl. Subjectively, Ms Heyworth’s voice seemed rather softer and consequently more expensive (?) on the vinyl. The vinyl pressing was of good quality and, curiously, had been mastered (as had the CD) with almost enough time between tracks to make yourself a nice cup of tea.