Anais Mitchell
Album: Xoa
Label: Wilderland
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.anaismitchell.com

Even as individual singer-songwriters go, Anaïs Mitchell's always been regarded as something of an acquired taste, largely I suspect due to the chirpily fragile quality of her singing voice rather than the nature of her songwriting. Her album of 2013, Child Ballads (a collaboration with Jefferson Hamer), was a considerable success despite the odds, with her interpretive powers on non-original (traditional) material convincing many times over - and incredibly strongly too. That strength and confidence comes across even more forcibly in the light of the experience of Child Ballads, I believe, and xoa's resolutely pared-down voice-and-guitar environment is at once a terrifically brave and completely natural modus operandi for Anaïs to pursue here at the career stage of this, her seventh album. Entirely without compromise, the slightly obscure intransigencies of previous themed ventures Hadestown and Young Man In America have been replaced by an intense, direct communication of intent and message in this collection of 15 songs. Just under half of them are new to her recorded catalogue, and the stark intimacy of these first-time recordings is very compelling indeed.

Of the older songs, the passionate Your Fonder Heart and the referential Namesake (both originally from The Brightness) receive freshly minted one-live-take-sounding readings, and Anaïs' revisit of Two Kids (from the whole-decade-old Hymns For The Exiled) scores with the benefit of hindsight and a greater structural coherence. You Are Forgiven also works unexpectedly well outside the context of Young Man In America. Another of xoa's standout tracks is the intense new solo reworking of Hadestown's Why We Build The Wall, while other Hadestown songs (especially If It's True) gain interest and a different perspective by virtue of Anaïs herself taking on the all-important vocal role. And the odd-song-out Any Way The Wind Blows, written since the original Hadestown for the subsequent theatre version, is also pretty strong stuff. Pick of the new songs I'd consider the reflective Come September, the introspective Now You Know, the delightful, seemingly effortless The Pursewarden Affair and the atmosphere-laden Out Of Pawn. Only Our Lady Of The Underground feels a little out of place as a recorded artefact rather than a one-off live performance.

Notwithstanding its necessary degree of self-reference, Xoa all adds up to a fine stand-alone collection that doesn't betray the fact of its being recorded in two separate sessions (way-far-pregnant and after childbirth) at producer Gary Paczosa's Nashville pad. I just love the fearless honesty with which Anaïs unashamedly presents her creations.

David Kidman