Reviews

Artist: Anna Elias And The Forlorn Hope
Album: Valleys In The Flatland
Label: UPM
Tracks: 14
Website:http://www.annaeliasandtheforlornhope.com

I first came across Anna Elias when she was lead singer with the Leeds based indie-acoustic band Bodixa, being particularly impressed by their EP "The Way Back Home". Following the demise of Boxida, Anna released an equally impressive solo EP, "When You're Gone".

Then things went a little quiet, Anna together with partner Harvey upped sticks from the urban sprawl of Leeds and headed off for a more rural existence and if the songs on her comeback album, "Valleys In The Flatlands" it's a decision that has done them a world of good.

As Anna Elias And The Forlorn Hope, the sound has a far more folkie heritage than its predecessors, including both Karine Polwart and Saul Rose amongst the guest musicians, creating a sound that her vocal style could have been born f

or. There is an earthy and yet dreamy quality to the vocal that connects it to the songs.

You can feel how the environment has flavoured and inspired songs, if not in their entirety, in the way the locality and progress of time are referenced, drawing on seasons and rural vistas as points of reference during the songs.

Nature can also be stark, as can the songs of Anna Elias And The Forlorn Hope, and like their counterparts, that starkness retains a very different type of beauty, slightly chilling and occasionally with a sense of foreboding, but a beauty none the less and it's this aspect of song that the band seem to capture so succinctly and nowhere is this better summed up than in the album's title track.

Short instrumental interludes permeate the album creating both a sense of time passed and time moving on, it's not something I hear on albums that often, but in the context of this album, it's a device that works exceptionally well.

"Valleys In the Flatlands" is a remarkable album from start to finish, entertaining, evocative and a wonderful way to announce being back.

Neil King

---