Emmy The Great – First Love

Here’s another updated version of folk music for you, with Emmy The Great telling tales with a delicious homely voice. Absentee has the feeling it should be sung in a nice sitting room, or an old pub round a roaring fire. Emmy peaks at just the right moments, and there’s something making a lovely buzz in the background. There are backing vocals or multi tracked vocals that lift it so it hovers above slumbers. 24 starts off about the TV show, but turns into a song about unfulfilled dreams and disappointing men. It is such a basic song, with little instrumentation, yet Emmy’s voice holds you captivated. We Almost Had A Baby skips along in such a way you expect it to turn cartwheels before long. The break in the middle twinkles delightfully and it’s surprisingly upbeat given the subject matter. Easter Parade dispels some myths but in Emmy’s usual charming way, it’s a disarming tactic, and one that you can’t help falling for. And there’s probably a dig at Doherty in the way she reveals there’s no Albion. Dylan skips along nicely, due to some lovely C&W drums and cushioning strings. Drums that sound like waves lapping on the shore and a gently strummed guitar is all we have for Museum Island, but it’s all it needs, leaving us to focus on the sad story and Emmy’s lovely voice. War chirrups along string bound, a distant relative of The Divine Comedy’s Tonight We Fly. In her own sweet way, she takes on the subjects of Hallelujah and MIA over the next couple of songs, fitting them as the central point to hang another relationship song around, because that’s what most of her songs are about, one way or another. We Are Safe positively gallops, the rhythm sounding like stampeding horses while Emmy chirrups delightfully across the top. Everything Reminds Me Of You is the most trad folk track here, with a touch of country heartbreak thrown in for good measure, and it wraps up a tender yet realistic album.

First Love is released by Close Harbour on February 9th
Emmy The Great myspace is here