Review: fRoots magazine
(Clive Pownceby - August 2004 )

This month's cover stars have come a long way fast but seem totally unphased by the daunting prospect of a debut album which has inevitably inspired great expectations. It helps that they're outstanding musicians but that, of course, is never enough, and they've applied to their technique real imagination, a broad canvas and a free spirit to create an album that constantly keeps you guessing. Their classical backgrounds give them an alternative starting point and they've done a fine job blending this - particularly Anna Esslemont's violin-fiddle - cohesively with the more traditional flavoured tunes. Certainly Feathers and Set in The Woods weave the classical bit very cleverly into a flowing set of tunes and throughout the whole album Ben Hellings' subtle guitar offers a deeply impressive undercurrent to the fiddle/percussion gymnastics. The sudden brief appearance of his wah wah pedal on Set in The Woods is one of the album's finest moments. They show they can rock and reel it with the best of them on The Drunken Mouse but raise the rood in a very different fashion on the Everywhere set, which evolves from a beautiful sentimental tune to an extract from Shirley Valentine to an exhilarating Yiddish tune.

If Anna Esslemont isn't yet the most expressive singer in the world she still holds your attention on three notably diverse songs. Mr and Mrs swings gently over a dark, almost cinematic lyric about an uncomfortable reunion; there's an impressive bold version of No Going Back, Sandra Kerr's wonderful song about feminism and the miners' strike; and on La Peri they do lush and evocative too.
There lurks the worry that they may yet fall between the stools of their various styles and influences, but it's an astonishingly assured, mature debut containing so many ideas you feel they can really progress significantly from here. Oh, and an excellent production debut for Joe Rusby too…

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