Hollie Fullbrook has a homely, singer next door kind of voice which is well suited to a song like Me At The Museum, You At The Wintergardens which tells of meeting a man to share sandwiches during a lunch break.
Although she was born in Bristol, UK and now lives in New Zealand, she exudes a kind of Scandinavian dourness in her second album, the follow up to the highly regarded Some Were Meant For The Sea.
Her debut was largely a solo affair while this record sees her joined by bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alexander Freer. Not that it is has made the sound any more expansive. if anything, the mood is more claustrophobic and introverted.
There's weary melancholy of the kind that you find in the songs of John Martyn or Nick Drake. She conjures up images of sunshine and painted white leaves as if willing herself to look on the bright side but her heart's not really in it. You feel she's more at home curling up with a good book or going back into the museum.
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"We gotta keep on keeping on" she sings on Chainmail Maker but barely seems to have the energy to summon up these motivational words.
A tune like Straw Into Gold has such a subdued, funereal arrangement you feel like giving the stereo a kick to inject some life into proceedings. By the time we get to Night Owl, the penultimate track, the already leaden pace has slowed to a crawl
There are many who will praise this as indicative of a delicate sensibility and they wouldn't be entirely wrong. But this is an album where I yearned for this young women to sound strident and fearless instead of merely slow and cheerless.
Tiny Ruins' website
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