I doubt whether this was the reaction Skye Edwards was anticipating from her listeners. I don’t think she’d be overly pleased either, for the opening track on her fourth solo album is… Well, it’s giving me belly laughs, to be totally honest.
The piece of music I am referring to, ‘Give In‘, is a beautiful torch ballad that wouldn’t have sounded out of place at a Billie Holiday revue, which is all well and good. However, the issue I have is with the rather unusual, irregular crack of the drum. This sounds like our inimitable songstress, struggling to be heard by an audience who want to be entranced, but can’t, due to someone randomly popping bubble wrap from stage right. The whole thing feels akin to a Morecambe and Wise sketch because of it, and I become a gibbering mess every time I hear it. Perhaps I’d best skip that one from now on…
“I wanted to write an album of songs that I could fall asleep to,” remarked the Morcheeba lady when discussing In A Low Light recently, “but it ended up being so much more than a night-time record.” Don’t kid yourself, Skye, this is absolutely a night-time record and there’s no getting away from it. You can stop being angry with me now, though, because I also must add that it is also rather beautiful throughout.
Many of these enchanting compositions are imbued with a capricious otherworldliness, from the child-like innocence of tender lullaby ‘Here Is What Is‘ to the smooth early hours calm of the pretty, simple piano idyll ‘Never Ending‘. Don’t expect to be won over in a heartbeat, though; these are nine songs that reveal themselves ever more progressively with each subsequent visit.
If the music is served up on a platter from beyond the twilight zone, the beatific vocals are nothing but faultless. These songs are downbeat but never dreary, moody but never sullen, and conjure up images of vast, expansive, empty landscapes where nothing ever stirs; just the gentle ripple of water in the distance and Edwards’ wintery breath down the nape of your neck.
Emotive, beguiling and fantastical, In A Low Light is just about as soporific as music can possibly get, and what’s not to like about that?
[Rating:4]
