Emily Davies – Free to Roam
Release Date: Out Now
I am going to start with
apologies all round on this one because I have been sitting on this for a while
now and that’s just now fair to anyone. I’ve let you down, I’ve let Emily down,
I’ve let myself down and I have no reasonable excuse other than I was waiting
for the right time to sit down and write about this. It turns out, however,
that a Sunday evening on the eve of Spring in the UK is exactly the right time
so grab a cup of something warming (or a glass, no judgement here) and let’s
ease in to this one shall we?
Emily Davies is a Devon based
musician with connections to LWM favourites Harbottle and Jonas which is a
strong start but, to be honest, ‘Free to Roam’ more than stands up on its own
as a work of musical art. Opening track ‘Daniel’ has a pleasing acoustic strum and
harmonica pairing which is immediately redolent of Laura Marling or Wildwood
Kin as Davies mixes minor and major harmonies with purity and perfection. Title
track ‘Free to Roam’ is a tad more floating and has folk influences worn in its
sleeve as Davies sings of a common situation where you feel like everyone is
else in your circle is sorted and you’re still spinning in the wind (spoiler
alert; nobody is ever as sorted as you think they are).
The gorgeous harmonica of Oliver
Tatler is back on ‘Out West’, perfectly accompanying the finger picking and sweet,
twilight vocals like the last song sung around a campfire before heading out
for pastures new at first light. On ‘Remember Well’ we are treated to a Carole
King meets Carly Simon masterclass in songwriting while ‘Disarm Me’ finds
Davies taking to the piano for a dramatic and heartfelt love song of epic
proportions. The piano theme continues on the instrumental ‘In the Small Hours’
which feels like it has been lifted straight from the score of the kind of film
that warms the heart and opens the tear ducts.
The penultimate song is ‘Wherever
You Are’, a song which makes me want to slow dance with someone I love in the
dusky glade of a woodland somewhere surrounded by Bluebells and dappled light –
Emily Davies has that kind of aura about here. As befits an album of such
delicate beauty, proceedings are wound up with the simple and gorgeous ‘Lullaby’
which should be handed out on CD to every new parent before they leave the
hospital such is its calming quality and universal appeal.
I am often in awe of artists like Emily Davies who seem to perform
and write with such effortless splendour whilst never begging for the limelight
or shouting about themselves, so it’s left for people like me to do: EMILY
DAVIES IS A SUPREMELY TALENTED SINGER-SONG WRITER WITH A HEAVENLY VOICE AND
LYRICS THAT WILL ENTHRALL YOU. Sorry for shouting.
More information: https://www.emilydavies.co.uk/
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