Lucius - Wildewoman

At first, a casual listen to the album’s opening title track suggests the song-writing ideas on ‘Wildewoman’ are that bit too classic. Clip-clopping percussion accompanied by a delicately melodious third-person narrative makes for warm nostalgia, but little else – think The Staves, with a slightly richer, earthier tone. But come two and a half minutes in, a sudden crescendo and chanting of “we’ll only be bound by the things we choose”, and we’re in completely different territory, with a steely grit that doesn’t so much surprise as make you question why you hadn’t seen it coming.

This balance between a sweet, butter wouldn’t melt surface and a resolutely ballsy undercurrent means that, over the course of eleven tracks, the album is never predictable. Take a track like ‘Nothing Ordinary’, which is part old-fashioned blues and part primal desert howl, but is then followed by ‘Two Of Us On The Run’, a lullaby-esque acoustic number.

It’s ‘Go Home’ though which is the stand out track here. This is a seductive waif of a slow-dance that beguiles you effortlessly with a human doll metaphor, only to erupt into an anguished, unrepentant rejection of “I don’t need you, go home”. It’s heart-breaking and victorious all at once, and it’s to Jesse and Holly’s great credit that their vocals are what tie these performances together so neatly.

Unfortunately, their predominance is part of the album’s only real problem. Somewhere in the background there are a couple of guitarists and a drummer who are undoubtedly proficient and, when they’re allowed to shine on tracks like ‘How Loud Your Heart Gets’ ‘Don’t Just Sit There’ absolutely nail it to the wall. The trick would be getting them to do it for a whole album.