MARIA MCKEE
LA VITA NUOVA
FIRE RECORDS
★★★
Joni Mitchell echoes resound on McKee’s first album in 13 years. Mapping her transition from frustrated wife to “pansexual, polyamorous, gender-fluid dyke”, it’s full of quietly theatrical flourishes: Right Down To The Heart Of London’s sprightly melody gives way to market cries, while Page Of Cups recalls Hejira, McKee’s voice swooping amid jazzy guitar embellishments. Ceann Bró adds tinges of Irish folk in tribute to William Butler Yeats, its subject, while However Worn brings things to an intimate, acoustic close.