Emiliana Torrini - 'Fisherman's Woman' (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
All the greats knew it, and Emiliana Torrini knows it too. When you're a solo singer/songwriter then sure, the production matters, the lyrics matter, your sincerity certainly matters, but what will really clinch it are the songs. Great songs will make a great album; concentrating on anything but will make a bad album. There's a simple rule for you all. 'Fisherman's Woman' is a host of utterly beautiful songs. That's its only concern. And so, it's a very beautiful album.
At times it is indeed a little sugary. There are a couple of phrases that sound a little crude too, but we won't mention them in the hope that they might pass you by if you're not actively searching for them. It overcomes the other usual flaws of this kind of affair, such as a lack of variation in either the dynamic or the emotional range, because on this evidence Torrini seems incapable of writing a song that isn't completely, enchantingly gorgeous, whatever it is she's going on about.
The best of these all is the sublime 'Sunny Road', majestically swaying between delicately twinkling, optimistic melodies into more sinister, passing morsels of tune, it's charmingly infectious and potentially one of the singles of the year. But this is just the second track, and whilst many records struggle to regain a sense of purpose after such an early high, the well of inspiration doesn't ever dry up; let's just take a moment to pause and consider how refreshing it is to be able to say something of that sort about a record like this...
... Alright, slow down, this isn't the perfect record and Torrini is no Messiah. But it is still bloody lovely - consistently lovely too, even when it's pushing feelings less than joyous in nature, which happens rather more often that you may expect. 'Lifesaver' even comes across as partially angry, 'Honeymoon Child' is desperately sad, and 'Today Has Been OK' sounds as if our heroine is trying to pull through some inner darkness with all her might, and only just managing. Oddly, you find yourself cheering her on.
It's an understanding of the beauty of contrast that makes 'Fisherman's Woman' so welcoming. Things aren't always fantastic, but neither are they beyond hope. Oft, life can seem to be both. And so it's a credit to Torrini's honesty that both are reflected. Things get wonderfully uplifting after the spots of gloom - 'Heartstopper' has a brilliantly laissez-faire shtick towards life about it, the opening 'Don't Know' is adorably defiant in the face of the bleak unknown, and that darn 'Sunny Road' again, well, that's just magnificent.
We'll admit it's soppy, but it's the best soppiness has sounded in years. Claims that we're in some kind of trance brought on by all this enchanting, acoustic witchcraft and therefore incapable of delivering a fair critique of the record speak volumes themselves - it's the record that made us this way. And if we are indeed dreaming, the first person to pinch us gets a slap in the face.
Artists in this article: Emiliana Torrini
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