Liz Green - O Devotion!

by Benjamin Howarth

published: 27 / 2 / 2012

Label: Play It Again Sam
Format: CD

Introverted and reflective, but ambitious long awaited debut album from Glastonbury’s emerging talent competition Liz Green, which mixes together jazz, blues and folk influences

Review

Its nearly five years since Liz Green won Glastonbury’s emerging talent competition, entitling her to a slot on the main stage. Only now has she readied her first album, but it suggests that the Glasto judges were on to something. Born in Liverpool, and now living in Manchester, Green’s voice is what would have caught the ear of the Eavis family. It sounds a lot like Joni Mitchell in recent years, after years of smoking deepened her voice, and there’s the occasional Antony Hegarty as well. Her vocals are accompanied by only the sparsest of arrangements – brass and double bass, plucked acoustic guitar – and nothing distracts from them. “I want to be a French Singer.” Green says on the jaunty torch song, and it’s a good clue to her intentions. Though she’s clearly well versed in traditional music styles, jazz and blues are clearly as much an influence as folk. Her songs are gently introverted, and reflective – but still ambitious. The further she gets from a traditional folk sound the better she seems to get. She’s found the perfect accomplice in producer Liam Watson (best known as the man who twiddled the knobs on White Stripes’ Elephant) – unadorned with any studio gimmickry, Green’s precise arrangements sound timeless.

Track Listing:-

1 Hey Joe
2 Midnight Blues
3 Displacement Song
4 Luis
5 Bad Medicine
6 French Singer
7 Rag & Bone
8 The Quiet
9 Ostrich Song
10 Gallows

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/lizgreenmusic
http://lizgreenmusic.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/lizgreenmusic
https://www.youtube.com/user/lizgreenm
https://plus.google.com/10787339844899