Celeste
★★★
Woman Of Faces
POLYDOR. CD/LP/CS
Oscar nominee and Brits Rising Star winner’s second album.
Combining the everyday introspection of Adele and the echo-drenched, wind-tunnel approach of Freya Ridings, Celeste Waite was the right singer at the right moment when Not Your Muse, her 2021 debut, swept all before it. Second time around, the shock of the new has evaporated, but she’s subtly evolving and broadening her palette. Now, she’s evoking a slurry Here Comes The Sun-era Nina Simone on the opening On With The Show, while Keep Smiling’s Gordon Jenkins-style orchestral arrangement takes her into subdued torch song territory. If she sounds old beyond her years there (and elsewhere), Could Be A Machine, with its Lorde-esque fierce drumming and frenetic mid-section amidst more experimental orchestration, offers a rare glimpse of something altogether more contemporary. Others in Waite’s position might have taken a poppy direction. She’s braver than that and she’s building for longevity.