DOMINO
On her third album, Anna Calvi projects an assured, selfrealised voice as she tackles issues of ascribed gender roles and sexual stereotyping head-on. On the sensual, palm-muted As A Man, Calvi ponders rhetorical gender questions; the sweeping keyboard pads of Hunter, which bears melodic similarities to Morning Light from 2011’s self-titled debut, find company in fuzzy slide guitar and a Kate Bush-like falsetto; Don’t Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy confronts the subject of forcing young children to conform to outdated norms, Calvi breaking into a steepling howl at its climax. The virtuosic guitar playing that characterised her debut is often cloaked in effects, with reverb-heavy drums and keyboards played by Portishead’s Adrian Utley centre stage; although on the gothic drama of Indies Or Paradise, Calvi breaks into a brief hyperbolic divebombing solo, and Wish features some superlative playing. Three albums in, Anna Calvi has chosen to follow overtly the maxim of writing what you know, to stunning effect, on a record of high operatic drama and lyrical confidence. Gary Walker