There’s a style to St Etienne singer Sarah Cracknell’s second solo album that could not be mistaken for anyone else.
Part of this is down to a nostalgic, lingering fondness for pop’s misty past, a sound long associated with Cracknell and her band, but there’s also a classy, timeless element at play.
It’s partly down to the evocative power of her voice, yet the writing, arrangements and performance are also striking.
Time and time again, she creates songs that ring and tingle with the stuff of kitchen-sink dramas, everyday realisations and graceful daydreams like a series of loosely-linked film scenes.
Be it the duet with Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire on Nothing Left to Talk About or the melancholic momentum of Ragdoll, Cracknell has created an album full of moving, elegant, fully-realised magic moments.
