Cathy Davey: Tales of Silversleeve
Thursday, 05 Jun 2008 14:47
Cathy Davey: Tales of Silversleeve
Regal, out June 9th.
In a nutshell...
Quirky, catchy folk-pop
What's it all about?
Four years since the release of her debut album, Something Ilk, Cathy Davey has moved on from her folk roots and put together a more ambitious pop record while maintaining her whimsical style. Gone are the comparisons to the likes of Tom Waits and PJ Harvey, being replaced by Kate Bush and Bjork references. Having already won over her home country, the UK launch of her second album and a string of summer dates sees Davey attempt to make the leap from cult favourite to mainstream success.
Who's it by?
Born in Wicklow, Cathy Davey burst onto the Irish folk scene in 2004, touring the country and honing her craft with the likes of Elbow and Graham Coxon before releasing her critically-acclaimed Something Ilk and the Come Over EP in the space of a few months. After taking time out in France to focus on her other artistic interests, namely writing and drawing, her star has risen further with the release of Tales of Silversleeve, a largely self-recorded album finished with the help of Liam Howe from the Sneaker Pimps. Davey is now starting to be commercially as well as critically successful, at least in Ireland, with this latest album spending almost 20 weeks in the Irish Top 50, helped partly by support slots with REM and her music being used on national mobile phone advertisements.
As an example...
"With a spanner in my brain and I'll never talk sense again/But I'll sing with all I've got from the bottom of my leaky gut." - Sing for Your Supper
"You be the airplane, I'll be the captain/Over the sea we'll fly, where nobody knows us, nobody cares on the other side."
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
The industry recognition is slowly starting to come for the 28-year-old. After Tales of Silversleeve won a nomination for the Irish album of 2007, Davey has just been named the best Irish female in the country's prestigious Meteor Awards.
Sadly, however, such awards are likely to be confined to her home country, as she is unlikely to see off the likes of Madonna in best international artist categories.
What the others say
"On the upbeat songs which dominate, Davey has a swing to her sound which promises many a big night in a small venue, but it's when she's feeling around in the dark of the heart on 'Sing for Your Supper' and 'Overblown Love Song' that she's at her most magnetic." - RTE, Ireland
"Here's a bright, bold and breezy rush of imagination, creativity and sheer glorious sounds, an album of sequins, sparkles and swagger. There are 11 songs here which are utterly – utterly – in love with the possibilities which occur in that atomic pop moment when everything is destined to go boom." - Irish Times
So is it any good?
So often, when it comes to singer-songwriters, terms such as 'quirky' and 'kooky' are simply bywords for annoying or pretentious. Not so with this album. Though the frankly bizarre lyrics of opening track Sing for Your Supper take some getting accustomed to, its multi-layered build-up is joyful and worthy of the comparisons being made with Bjork or Goldfrapp. Songs such as Reuben or Moving On showing another side to Davey's talents, with their infectious grooves, while the solemn Overblown Love Song represents a more serious element to Davey's work and marks a perfect midway point in a near-faultless album. The real highlight, however, is her distinctive voice, making her sound more like she's from Stockholm rather than County Wicklow, though it remains to be seen whether her vast talents will be appreciated outside her native land.
8/10
David Hewitt
Agree with this review? Have a different opinion? Let us know your thoughts (without being too abusive to our poor reviewers please) and we'll post the best ones on the site.
Write your comments below: