Siobhan Miller
Album: Flight Of Time
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.siobhanmiller.com/

It's all of six years since Siobhan won the 2008 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in a duo with Orcadian musician Jeana Leslie, with whom she went on to record two exceptionally fine albums for Greentrax. Then, earlier this year, Siobhan joined the group Salt House, whose debut CD Lay Your Dark Low made an immediate mark. Making even more of an impression on me, though, had been live gigs which Siobhan had performed ostensibly solo (actually with her dad Brian in tow!), on which the full extent of her talent was revealed in the most intimate and immediate of settings. She's unquestionably one of the finest young singers on the scene today, whose grasp of the traditional ballads and songs has long been famed but who is equally at home with more contemporary material and is now making quite a name for herself as a songwriter too. Flight Of Time, Siobhan's debut solo album, would appear to find her turning her back on the tradition - but only in the sense that none of its songs are traditional in origin (the nearest to that is Dave Goulder's iconic January Man, a brilliantly turned account of which closes the disc).

Flight Of Time is nominally a solo record, but although four of its ten songs are Siobhan's own compositions the whole album is actually more of a collaborative effort - with reputed Scottish singer-songwriter James Grant, who has not only produced the album but also co-written those songs with Siobhan but also given three more of his own songs to Siobhan for to sing here. That just leaves three more covers: the aforementioned Goulder opus, Ewan MacPherson's setting of Edwin Muir's poem Scotland's Winter, and Davy Steele's Long Hellos And Short Goodbyes - all of which receive charismatic and genuinely felt performances from Siobhan (indeed, it was Siobhan's tender performance of the Davy Steele number at 2010's Celtic Connections that provided the catalyst for the creation of this album). The disc's unifying thread, albeit not consciously chosen, gives it its title; it's an exploration of the passing of time - and Siobhan's own songwriting achieves this tricky feat very insightfully for someone of her relatively tender age. Melodically, the anthemic opener If I Had Known could almost be a Dougie Maclean song, whereas the attractive lilt of No Butterflies and Secrets And Lies perhaps put me more in mind of Karine Polwart.

I'm heartened that Siobhan's magnificent singing voice is placed centre-stage with the lyrics, for if I have any reservations about the album these would have to be largely due to the musical side of its presentation. A lot of thought has evidently been given to the arrangements, and, impressed as I am with the scope of Siobhan's (and James') aural imagination, there are too many moments when I feel the settings cloy, there's simply too intense a colouring despite obvious best intentions. The sparse, bleak backdrop for The January Man (the standout track on the entire disc IMHO) is both chilling and telling, and the fairly restrained Americana-style setting of Sunset Steeples is well-managed, as are the three tracks which involve the sweeping, panoramic sound of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Down In The Dandelions in particular seems inspired by Robert Kirby's classy string arranging); but in between those extremes there's a distinct feeling that there's too much else going on, with at times too many layers in the mix (despite the abundant loving care with which they're handled), and all this in the end works to the overall detriment of the songs concerned. And that's notwithstanding the excellent musicianship from all the guests including Donald Shaw, James Mackintosh, Ewan Vernal and Siobhan's Salt House bandmates. Maybe Siobhan and James should have reined in their ambition just a touch on occasion instead of going for a maximum accessibility quotient; the quality of the writing fairly demands a greater chance of listener concentration, both on the lyrics and on the wonderful dynamic shadings of Siobhan's fabulous voice.

David Kidman