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I can still hear the mutterings ring in my ears! Whatever became of the relationship that had Lisa Hannigan working with Damien Rice for some seven years and came to an abrupt end on the beginning of his '9' tour? Some things are best kept to themselves. On 'Sea Sew', Lisa Hannigan's debut release, what remains intact is her relationship with Rice's band, with Tom Osander on drums, Shane Fitzsimons on double bass, Donagh Molloy on trumpet and Vyvienne Long on cello while flourishes of xylophone, harmonium and melodica add to a certain chamber-folk charm.
The album is so home-made that even her Mother has been enlisted to provide the stitch-work art of the cover and lyrics sheet. 'Sea Sew' with its vignettes on love, meaning and togetherness finds Hannigan's voice all we expect - sleepy and hush-toned with a come-to-bed seductiveness that draws comparisons to Stephanie Dosen, Lou Rhodes and Beth Gibbons; the melodies on 'Sea Sew' showing an intuitive sense of timing and instrumentation from the band. Thus far, 'Sea Sew' has already been voted for Best Irish Album at the Meteor Music Awards.
'Ocean And A Rock' is a gentle chamber-folk piece where Hannigan can be found wrapping up love's keepsakes, singing merrily - "...I feel you in the pocket of my overcoat...I feed your words through my buttonhole...I spoon you into my coffee cup...", it's a cutesy sentiment that can be found over-egged, however, on the watercolour track 'Splishy Splashy', while 'I Don't Know' sounds like an amorous fancy developed in an internet chatroom, Hannigan singing "...I don't know if your better in the morning...I don't know if you can dance...I'd like to cook for you...", and continues to ask whether the imaginary suitor plays with their food, speaks other languages, or reads novels, and whilst the disposition is sunny, the brass and string arrangements are zip full of the joys of spring, it does come across as some sugary confection.
The forthcoming single, 'Lille', avoids any pitfalls by producing a felicitous, timeless and tender ditty of a love-song from the war-front. 'Pistachio' succeeds in it's sentiments to produce a sense of solitude where a gay piano and muted trumpet conspire to produce a lullaby, Hannigan singing "...I know you're weighed down, and fed up, with your heavy, boots, laced with melancholy, notions all your own..." and sighing like Mari Boine. 'Venn Diagram', meanwhile, is penned like a note to a dreaming lover which starts softly, softly, finding room for Hannigan to become expressive like she's tiptoeing through the daisies - "...school bell ring messing up the play, ha ha ha har...".
The fine 'Sea Song' is a beguiling work of baroque folk not unlike an Irish Calexico with Hannigan singing "...there's one man so bright...he's like no sleep on the weekend...", and baroque folk with a Viennese violin is the flavour of 'Keep It All', albeit with a Psapp-like quirkiness, while the mighty 'Courting Blues' (written by Bert Jansch) finds Hannigan singing in impressionistic tones where her measured vocals are stretched over violin and piano drapery.
On 'Teeth' Hannigan serves the finest curveball on the album. A sense of oceanic tumult powers the emotions Hannigan is grappling with - it's the kind of song that would have been the a grand duet with Damien Rice, the band striking up for a cathartic showdown as Hannigan sings "...I'd my teeth bared for battle, till love lost made me, it made me dull, it made me dullllllllaarrruuulll...". In her own words, Hannigan writes how she's made an album both warm and creaky, sparse and full, and the contrasts ring true. On 'Sea Sew', however, Hannigan has stepped out of Rice's shadow and emerged an artist in her own right and a songwriter finding her own voice.
