Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
When I was playing this album one more time ahead of writing it, my girlfriend came in and said that it sounded like Florence + the Machine. Now, I really don't like Florence, but I can see where she's coming from. Anna's voice has a similar tone and her songs do a similar line in struggle and overpowering emotions, with her début featuring plenty of wailing about love, the devil or both.
My problem with Florence's music, though, is how preposterously overstuffed and frilly it is. Anna Calvi, by contrast, has a wonderful straight to the point directness. Besides supporting drums, her voice and guitar playing are central and there is very little added to them. Plus any shows of virtuosity are pretty much confined to the guitar rather than the vocals, which is a good thing.
She plays with a dark rock and roll energy and gets across a primal intensity that's really raw and thrilling. When she sings the chorus of "First We'll Kiss" it's like she's willing the rest of the world into non-existence for getting in the way of her perfect moment. "I'll Be Your Man" is mostly just that one line and makes that sound like a powerful promise and a threat at once. "Desire" manages to do the 'fire/desire' rhyme and get away with it through sheer fierce force.
It's a necessarily short album and I'm not sure where she can go from here, but for now it's REALLY EXCITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
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