‘On the Bridge to Williamsberg’ finds Mckeown in duet with Declan O’Rourke and reflecting on her life’s experience. It’s a song that’s ultimately uplifting and empowering in its sense of acceptance and contentment. The folky ‘The Cure’ is stirring and heartfelt, and across the album McKeown shows she has the capacity to channel emotion convincingly while also adopting a range of styles from across the country end of the musical spectrum.
The yodelsome county of ‘Fallen Angel’ is at least mercifully brief and it counterbalanced by the gloomy vaudeville of ‘Lullaby of Manhattan’ and the mournful, string-soaked ‘Delph’ which finds McKeown painting a character portrait and weave a sad little narrative.
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At the heart of the album is an exploration of identity, of what it means to ‘belong’ (or not). Overall, it’s a nice album that shows a lightness of touch and is the work of an artist who’s grown in confidence and maturity in the course of building what now stands as a respectable body of work.
Susan McKeown Online
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