Lou Rhodes - Beloved One Album Review

Lou Rhodes
Beloved One
Album Review

One of the 'others' on this year's Mercury Music list, Lou Rhodes represented the folky end of the spectrum. And she represented it beautifully - this is a gorgeous little album. Louise Rhodes is the former lead singer of Lamb, which was more electronica than it was folk (think Portishead). Here, she lets her full Suzanne Vega out, and makes, well, a classic English folk album.

It doesn't always peak - there is occasionally more earnestness than pleasure - but when it does peak (as on the title track), there is a fantastic magnetism which must derive from her mesmeric past. The instrumentation is acoustic and traditional - folk percussion, violins, elegantly plucked guitar - under a lovely floaty voice, full of character. Beloved One is clearly an album made because she wanted to - simple melodies, great lyrics and a winsome vulnerability.

Rating 8/10

Mike Rea