Anna Calvi / One Breath

Anna Calvi’s sophomore release is clearly a beautiful and well crafted album from the start. She emerges from the shadows of any artists she may have been compared with in the early stages of her career, like a caterpillar that has come into daylight as a brand new butterfly. She proves she can fly and impress with a flight pattern all of her own. The music across these 11 songs shifts the listener through a wide array of feelings, from discomfort to sublime ecstasy.

The sonic palette, from gentle almost whispered vocals surrounded by delicate guitar and instrumentation up to almost heavy rock distortion and noise, often in the space of a moment, causes the listener to never have a chance to settle, endlessly on the edge of the seat, as if following a film with the most gripping of plots. The moments in which she sweeps us away with cinematic strings and classical, in fact, operatic waves of orchestral music, both vocally and instrumentally, are tantamount to being attacked, tied up and tortured, such is the gravitas of intensity. It is a phenomenal sound, as powerful as you could expect or ever be likely to encounter. She has new ideas, she is playful, yet it is all executed with precision and grace. She has a knack of finding the sounds that are in her heart and in her head, and they are highly listenable, catchy in parts, and intoxicating.

To make a good debut album is one thing, to follow it up with a progression, an improvement of the template of one’s sound and show even more potential for your own future is certainly no easy feat. Anna Calvi has done all of this and more here, in what elevates her to one of the best songwriters and most unique talents out there. All of this, in a time of so many gifted artists, is indeed high praise. I would suggest tracking her career path and awaiting each move she makes with baited breath, as her ‘one breath’ is an astounding achievement and soundtrack of a mystical mind.