Following her brief, more mainstream association with Warner Bros.,
Eliza Carthy returns to folk, the music she loves best, and does so with renewed vigor. Over the course of several albums (apart from the
Angels & Cigarettes detour), she's pushed at renewing traditional English folk, bringing something new and fresh to the songs, and this is no exception. Interestingly, though, the most arresting track is "Worcester City," whose intensity and roaring fiddle line (it's worth noting that
Carthy keeps improving as a fiddle player) brings to mind
Liege & Lief-era
Fairport Convention. Her fiddle playing, in fact, is of international stature these days -- just listen to the live "In London So Fair," for example. That she's very aware of contemporary music is evident on "Pretty Ploughboy," where the rhythm track seems like a cross between a
Nine Inch Nails lie and
Tom Waits' eccentricity. "Little Gypsy Girl" brings in her mother,
Norma Waterson, and her cousin to add delicious harmonies, while "Bold Privateer" shows that she's become a folksinger of real lasting quality -- truly the child of her parents (and she celebrates her father's sixtieth birthday with "Dr. Mcmbe").
Carthy's grown rapidly as a musician, and done it all in public, but with the aptly named Anglicana, exploring the possibilities of English song from her version of
Harry Cox's "The Tide Was Flowing" all the way into the 21st century, she's certainly reached her full maturity. ~ Chris Nickson