This Earthly Spell [CD]

As well as giving birth to her first child, philosophy graduate and folk chanteuse Karine Polwart has somehow found time over the past year to record two new albums, December's traditional Scottish collection, Fairest Floo'er, and now the self-composed This Earthly Spell. Only a full-time musician since the age of 29, Polwart's debut release, Faultlines, won the best album award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and since then her simple but evocative style, featuring some stark, often harrowing lyrics inspired both by the history of her native land and her years working for Scottish Women's Aid, have established the Borders-based singer as one of her genre's most respected contemporary exponents.

This Earthly Spell reinforces some of the core elements that forged Polwart's reputation, but does not really deliver much of a punch. Typical tracks like Better Things and Rivers Run carry on the tradition of recently rediscovered female folk greats like Anne Briggs with their prettily meandering acoustic guitar lines and crystal clear vocals, but are little more than proficient and pleasant. Opening number, The Good Years, has the kind of hymnal but slightly saccharine chorus omnipresent in modern country, while The News's pallid jazz evokes unwelcome memories of Fairground Attraction.

It's only on Firethief, a poignant lament to a young man stricken by AIDS, that Polwart really lives up to her reputation as a songwriter of true stature. The hauntingly insistent guitar line and some coruscating imagery combine with powerful effect to describe a mother's ''bonnie laddie'' withering away to become ''a rickle of skin and bone'' - evidence of a captivating storyteller that is rarely apparent elsewhere on This Earthly Spell.

The album closes with the eight minutes plus of Tongue That Cannot Lie, a ponderous elegy to the thirteenth century poet and prophet, Thomas The Rhymer. This medieval sage was no doubt a most intriguing individual, but Polwart is a much more interesting and accessible artist when writing about the struggles of the living. --Chris White

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"Rising Scottish folkstress still on the up...spellbinding voice...an exceptionally subtle and melodic songwriter...in a fairer world 'The Good Years' sumptuous harmonies would be all over the airwaves"

The chiming opening track, a gorgeous vocal setting of a lyric by eminent Scots poet Edwin Morgan, gives way to the steely, swampy "Sorry", whilst the delightful jazz inflected whimsy of "The News" contrasts the anti-nuclear political bite of "Better Things" and the incisive "Painted It White". Unsurprisingly, for a new mum, three songs deal with motherhood. The poignant understatement of "Firethief", which Polwart wrote originally for HIV/AIDS documentary "The Enemy That Lives Within", one of BBC Radio 2's Radio Ballads, unravels a mother's loss; whilst she wrote the tender and delicate "Rivers Run" for her own son. But it's the eerie and atmospheric parable "Tongue That Cannot Lie" that, most of all, betrays Polwart's background as a former philosophy teacher, and her ongoing fascination with moral ambivalence. Inspired by the supernatural legend surrounding thirteenth century Scottish Borders poet and prophet Thomas The Rhymer, it also distinguishes her as an ambitious and captivating storyteller.

The bittersweet, cascading harmonies of "The Good Years" sets the tone for Karine Polwart's new album This Earthly Spell (Hegri04). And it's been a good year indeed for The Scottish Borders based singer, who gave birth to her first child in 2007, and still managed to record enough material for not one but two new albums on her own label imprint Hegri Music.

Following the fireside intimacy of Scottish traditional collection Fairest Floo'er (Hegri03, Dec 2007), This Earthly Spell reinforces Polwart's reputation as a humane and perceptive songwriter who draws on indie and roots influences as much as folk traditions.

The chiming opening track, a gorgeous vocal setting of a lyric by eminent Scots poet Edwin Morgan, gives way to the steely, swampy "Sorry", whilst the delightful jazz inflected whimsy of "The News" contrasts the anti-nuclear political bite of "Better Things" and the incisive "Painted It White".

Unsurprisingly, for a new mum, three songs deal with motherhood. The poignant understatement of "Firethief", which Polwart wrote originally for HIV/AIDS documentary "The Enemy That Lives Within", one of BBC Radio 2's Radio Ballads, unravels a mother's loss; whilst she wrote the tender and delicate "Rivers Run" for her own son.

But it's the eerie and atmospheric parable "Tongue That Cannot Lie" that, most of all, betrays Polwart's background as a former philosophy teacher, and her ongoing fascination with moral ambivalence. Inspired by the supernatural legend surrounding thirteenth century Scottish Borders poet and prophet Thomas The Rhymer, it also distinguishes her as an ambitious and captivating storyteller.

Most of the album was recorded just a few miles away from her Borders home at the beautiful Heriot-Toun visual arts studio which she and her live band, with producer Calum Malcolm, transformed into a unique and intimate recording environment. But despite the rural influences, there's nothing escapist or sentimental about this collection of songs.

It's three years since Polwart scooped a trio of BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including "Best Album" for her debut Faultlines and "Best Original Song", an accolade she won for a second time in 2007. In the meantime, she's released two further solo albums, Scribbled in Chalk and Fairest Floo'er, and collaborated with the likes of Roddy Woomble and cult Glasgow indie outfit Future Pilot AKA. And she shows no sign of slowing down:

"More and more I feel like an album captures just a wee slice of time. I'm already working on new ideas and will be making new songs available through my website on a monthly basis this year for people who're interested. I think it's more and more important now for songwriters like me to offer something more than just a static piece of work."