Anna Calvi – 'Anna Calvi' review
Anna Calvi is a half-Italian, half-English south Londoner who appears, from nowhere, to have just composed the rightful follow-up to Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Her debut album is all that Buckley’s was 15 years ago – grand, melodramatic and piercing, shot through with equal measures of doomed melancholy and spiralling euphoria, space and passion, idealism and heroic melody. With a rich, guttural voice and beautifully expressive guitar-playing that brings to mind Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti-western film scores, Calvi weaves darkly cinematic, romantic songs that are classic enough to avoid accusations of cheese, and immersive enough to be utterly believable.
A debut record this instantly striking, impressive and bold is a rare thing. It may, occasionally, be rough around the edges, but as a 40-minute ride through such intense territory, Anna Calvi is pure, breath-quickening exhilaration.
10/10
