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Angels & Cigarettes

Warner Bros UK

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Whispers Of Summer
Train Song
Beautiful Girl
Whole
Poor Little Me
Company Of Men
Perfect
Wild Wood
Breathe
Fuse

Average customer rating: 4 stars

Talent begets talent

Eliza Carthy is the daughter of Sir Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. She's steeped in folk tradition and she brings some of that style to this collection of mostly new music. She ranges from folk ("Train Song") to a sort of hip-hop ("Whole.") For the most part, the songs are excellent: vocals are strong and the instrumentation is complementary; however, "The Company of Men" is over-orchestrated to the point that I've skipped it every time after the first listen.

My favorite of this is "Train Song," with it's dark feeling and elegant fiddling.

Rebecca Kyle, May 2008

Critical cachet from its obscurity?

To this first time Carthy listeners ears, the music here is nice but not especially remarkable. While it seems to be tagged by most as contemporary folk, what I come away with here is a Celtic veneer on Jewel-esque pop. Violins play an occasional role but only very rarely are they center stage ("Whispers of Summer" is one of the exceptions."Poor Little Me" features a violin placed in an "alt" context...it's run through some sort of phaser/filter.)

There's a hint of a (Gaelic?) accent to Carthy's voice but no foreign language numbers: it's clearly geared to the coffeehouse crowd rather than diehard folk purists.

HIGHLIGHTS:
Carthy seems to be at her best here when she's unashamedly contemporary. She abandons any sops to "authenticity" on "Beautiful Girl" and it's one of the better numbers. It's chock full of skittering video game noises riding a galloping drum machine track. "Whole"'s elegant lust sounds like Sinead O'Connor singing over a Natalie Merchant track. ("I could be all the way around you/Swallow you in myself/Wrap my body around you/You are so small, so delicate, and mine/If only I could warm you all the time...") "The Company of Men" is probably one of the "folkiest" sounding things here if you ignore the sweeping string arrangements. (Parental alert: This is one you'll DEFINITELY want to skip if little ears are present unless you want to explain specific sexual practices to them..) "Wild Wood" is a Paul Weller song redone as trip-hop and works pretty well. It would be believable as a Massive Attack song.

LOWS:
"Breathe" is pretty interesting musically, but the words don't draw me in at all. "Fuse" is also laden with strings like "Company of Men" but the lyric's not as memorable. The arrangement also seems intrusive as though the strings are there to CREATE drama..rather than merely assist drama already in the lyric.

BOTTOM LINE:
It's beautifully produced and tuneful. Once it's over, I can't really recall much of it. There just isn't enough musical "meat" underneath all the dressing. Average.

Modern Day Folk

Eliza Carthy may be the daughter of British folk icon Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson, but with Angels & Cigarettes she is setting her own ground with experimental grooves, classical strings, her own traditional fiddle playing and light worldbeats, creating a rich texture of folky dance pop. Layered in with thick synthesized textures, layered percussion, and hints of trip-hop, reggea, and subtle jazz, she stirs an effective potion of catchy hooks, leaving you sated but sadly unquenched. Most songs average out to be about 3 1/2 mins. in length, leaving you with a taste for more. But the main reason for my 4-star rating is because of the overlayering of string arrangments on "The Company Of Men." It just seems too awkward and overdone. But aside from that the rest of the songs are superb . . . ranging from everything to the joyful "Whispers Of Summer" to the more laments of (my personal favorite) "Train Song." I think the most rememberable song, though, would have to be the haunting remake of Paul Weller's "Wildwood" and "Poor Little Me" which rings with Middle-Eastern infections, echoing her Irish roots. Angels & Cigarettes is a near miss to perfection but is worthy of attention anyways. She's a terrific singer with eclectic tastes. BUT IT NOW! I hope my review helped. Did it?

Wonderful Talent

Carthy is a great up and comming talent. Her music is interesting and her lyrics poetic. You can hear the influence of british folk and Irish ballads in the tone of her composition.

While she still needs to mature, this album is well worth buying and this artist will no doubt produce more wonderful things in the future.

Fiddling magnificence!

With a daring bravado unafraid of mistakes (there are very few) and exploration of inventive instrumentation (there is much), this is one of the best albums I own. She evolves with each album she releases, and the fiddle and accordion keep her unique sound cleverly grounded. There are many opportunities for mistakes in her work: the combo of electronics and accordion might not work, the traditional songs might be stale, and so forth. None of these criticisms are the case. She does not miss a lick; this album is easily exactly as intended by her young genius, for while such perfection might happen on a small scale, it cannot happen big like "Red Rice" and "Angels." This is not to say that this album is for everyone, for cutting edge work always leaves someone behind who cannot move forward.

I find it a brilliant album, and I desperately hope I can see one of her shows sometime.