Eyes for Gertrude
Album: Residential Bliss
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.eyesforgertrude.com

Singers and songwriters Chantelle Pike and Hannah Dean came together as art students in the south-west of England, their musical adventures have taken them to Canada where the album, Residential Bliss, was recorded with KD Laing's former backing musician and producer Ben Mink. The production is rich; strings, keyboards, guitars all showcase the lead vocals of Pike and the harmonies of Dean. On tracks such as Home and Julian the voices might almost be part of the instrumentation.

The album is broad in its influences, at times its Nashville, certainly there are undercurrents of English folk, and at times it might even be Portishead. The opening track, Rag and Bone is an upbeat guitar-jangling contemplation of change; it's the most commercial track on the album, which would explain its release as a single. Forgiveness Killed Us begins whimsically and then quickly picks up-tempo as the increasingly nightmarish narrative is driven along by a Roma-like sound of accordion, percussion and fiddle.

The lyrics are well matched to the music providing an intriguing medium for Pike's vocal exploration, the full range of which is displayed through the tale of loss in Messing Around. This is track also showcases her piano playing, a key ingredient of the album, no more so than on the fatalistic History.

Residential Bliss will appeal to all those who have enjoyed the generations of country-inspired female vocalists, but it has a little bit more to offer in the diversity of its influences, so expertly integrated by Mink's production.

Leah Parker-Turnock