Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely brilliant..., 13 Jul 2008
It's easy to be flippant isn't it? Yet another female singer-songwriter, following up a critically praised but, outside her native Ireland, slow selling debut album. But please, stay with me. For a start this isn't your typical dross, forced on us by record companies chasing the next easy pound for their accounts.
Wit, invention and rhythm are lacking in a lot of modern music (of course, really they're not, but I'm making a point here), three things that Tales Of Silversleeve has in spades.
In fact if I hear a better opening to an album than the first five tracks on here, (Sing For Your Supper, Reuben, The Collector, Moving, Mr Kill) then I will, quite literally, eat my hat. Sing For Your Supper is, simply, a beautiful love song but has so many levels that I couldn't possibly begin to list them all here. Reuben is a piano driven stomper and is the kind of thing that Scouting For Girls might come up with if they weren't a tool of the devil designed to lure 12 year old girls into buying a "proper" record. Indie comes next, with the delightfully jaunty The Collector and just when you think you've got as close to working her out as you are likely to, Moving steps in, with a dancey vibe (technical term that) to totally shatter your conception of what Davey is capable of. Then she changes tack, with the fantastic baseline of Mr. Kill, a funky groovetapper if ever I've heard one.
What follows the amazing opening quintet isn't half bad either. In fact it's probably only that the first five tracks are SO excellent, that you even notice there is an ever so slight drop in quality. And if we're being honest, anything from track six onwards would still be the best song on Adele's album by a country mile.
It even has a 60's style track, Rubbish Ocean, to please those looking for the next thing to take Amy Winehouse's place if she ever gets around to dying from that drug overdose.
And whilst some might argue, and not entirely without merit, that her musical promiscuity stops the album from having an over-riding identity of it's own I would take the opposite view. Tales Of Silversleeve is too good to be allowed to limit its scope. Better records may come along in 2008, but I'd be surprised if too many prove to be better than this.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant follow up to underated debut., 20 Jun 2008
If you missed Cathy Davey's debut album `Something Ilk' I suggest you firstly spank yourself and secondly get yourself a copy as it was great. But it has been four years since that album and I often wondered if there was ever going to be a follow up. But thankfully here it is `Tales of Silversleeve' has been a long time coming but it was worth the wait. With her own unique style, that has since been borrowed in her absence, she here gives us eleven new compositions of exquisite beauty. Opening with `Sing for your Supper' the first thing to notice is how Davey has used more layering on this record to really fill out the sound without overcrowding. `Rueben' the lead single is up next and it's a perfect companion piece to KT Tunstall's `Black horse and a Cherry Tree' all whoo hoo's and regulated drum beats. `Collector' is percussion laden and brings back memories of her debut where as `Moving' expands on the layered vocal over a hypnotic rhythm pattern. `Mr. Kill' sees her really explore her vocal range `I'll never rule you out' she repeats on its catchy chorus. `Overblown Love Song' slows the mood right down and lets her tender side float over a sparse piano and acoustic guitar before building into a full blown plea of `love me' as the music crescendos around. `No Heart Today' has a Nellie Mackay feel to it, a little ditty that has piano runs under the vocal parts. `Harmony' has a Bad Seeds carny element but less brutal than Nick and the boys with quite a jaunty piano solo. `Cant help it' has a chorus that soars far above the verse really lifting the song. `Rubbish Ocean' feels like a late night lullaby as Davey becomes the sandman and tries to sings you to sleep before jolting you back with a huge finish. Final track `All of you' is Davey's showcase to her voice and song writing skills and haunts the end of the album like a friendly ghost. It's a record that might not put her up with her contempories but I kind of like her where she is, existing a space that is all her own allowing her to make the music she and subsequently we love.
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