Robin Denselow 

Georgia Ruth: Fossil Scale review – synths sometimes scupper pleasant folk

  
  

Georgia Ruth.
Highly personal … Georgia Ruth Photograph: Kirsten Mcternan/PR Company Handout

Her debut album, Week of Pines, made Georgia Ruth one of the British folk discoveries of the year, and deservedly won the Welsh music prize in 2013. The follow-up provides further evidence of her fine, cool voice and strength as a highly personal songwriter, but it is a more disappointing affair. She presumably thought she could broaden her appeal by including only one song in Welsh and concentrating on keyboard backing rather than her Bert Jansch-influenced harp playing, but she now sounds a little more ordinary.

This is an album of pleasant, atmospheric songs that are not helped by the synth effects or mechanical-sounding percussion. But it has its moments. There’s a charming acoustic song in Welsh; an excellent piano-backed opening to When I Was Blue, before the band ease in; and the unexpected inclusion of a stringed Indian instrument, the sarangi.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*