After 2005's 'Notes on Love' I thought PJP had retired or something as she seemed to completely vanish. Then snippets of news came through and then a great small intimate show at the lovely St Pancras Old Church where I picked up a copy of this cd.
It doesn't exactly open in a very catchy way, 'Underworld Tubeophany' is 12 minutes of weird Tuba led noise, not very Take That but it sounds very good and creates a mood. Then it's straight into the actual songs as it crashes into 'City of Lost Angels', a straight forward rock song. The rest of the double cd is brilliant, '3 Men , 3 Mothers Dead' and 'All at Sea' are quite folky, 'Dark Night of the Soul' is a beautiful song that needs to played to death by everyone and the rest of the songs are beautifully eerie and atmospheric in turns.
Petra Jean is totally unique and I can't think of anyone who actually sounds like her or vice versa, PJ Harvey springs to mind, not that she sounds like her but both are totally unclassifiable.
Lets hope this sells a few more units and we don't have to wait until 2018 for her next record