Up until the release of Lucy Rose’s third album Something’s Changing I’d always found a her a little bit of a frustrating artist. I loved so many of her songs (a quick trawl through this blog will show you how many times I’ve featured them over the years) yet when it came to pulling it all together and creating an album there was always a nagging feeling that something just wasn’t quite fitting correctly. Sometimes what an artist produces doesn’t match with your own expectations.
The title of her new record seemed entirely appropriate then, as third time round everything seems to have changed for me and fallen into place perfectly. Having signed to a major, recorded two albums, seemingly become a bit disillusioned with music, left the label, toured South America by playing gigs put on by fans (which she documented in a moving film which you can see by clicking here) and signed with Communion (a label that seems far more fitting with Lucy’s sound) Something’s Changing is a product of those experiences. That doesn’t mean that you’ll find all sorts of Latin American rumba and salsa noises on Something’s Changing. Far from it. What Lucy’s experiences seem to have taught her is that there is an audience out there for her, and that audience just want her to be true to herself; to write songs and play them in the way she knows.
Something’s Changing achieves exactly that. It’s arguably her least commercial album; there’s no attempt at an indie pop crossover hit on this one. Instead it is a calming, pure sounding collection of songs that features collorative work with Elena Tonra from Daughter, The Staves and Emma Gatrill from Matthew And The Atlas. It was all recorded with Tim Bidwell who some of you may remember from his work with Kate Walsh. There’s a lot of similarities between Lucy’s record and Kate’s album Tim’s House in that the arrangements of the songs are never over complicated, letting Lucy’s beautiful voice and the melodies to come to the fore.
Something’s Changing is one of those records that despite it’s quality probably won’t feature on many end of year music publications lists. It’s probably not challenging or ground breaking enough for what a critic looks for. But for fans of Lucy, (and this blog is very much a fan blog not one which deals in complex critical anaylsis) Something’s Changing surely has to be up there.
Lucy Rose - Is This Called Home (Video)
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