Reviewed by Stella Redburn

Becky's voice is the first thing that strikes you - crystal clear, delicate yet self assured with a distinctive way of enunciating the final consonants. It's backed up by her pretty piano playing, which features heavily on every track. The songs are complex and perhaps not as immediately accessible as pop music generally requires and they take time and quite a few plays to begin to get under your skin. Many of her songs have a similar format, ie, a restrained beginning with quiet vocals, free rhythm and sparse accompaniment, leading into more rhythmic stuff as the band enters, then often with more varied parts later. The opening song, "The Gift", is like this. I liked the accessible tune and the electronic riff and the glocks were inspired. "The Earth Is Yours" has a catchy, simple tune, again starting acoustically until the band jumps in. I'm not sure why it was thought necessary to feature the title track twice, once as a shorter reprise. I wouldn't call it the strongest song on the album. "Edify" has a rather heavy synthesized sound thanks to Pete Coggan. I thought the final track "The Gold In The Fire" was great, with more of a groove going on and I liked the little choir - a nice touch. But I'm not sure about the band: there were nice moments but too often they sounded a bit shambolic, as if the drummer was doing his thing, then the guitarist happened to add something else. Bath-based Becky is clearly a talented singer/songwriter but the production of this album holds it back.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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