- Label
- Cooking Vinyl
- Release date
- 10th September 2007
- Genre
- Folk
- Buy this album
- Order CD
Embarrassingly plaintive folk is order of the day on the Scottish singer’s third album
We may be showing our age here, but we remember when Dot Allison was the dance music fan’s pin-up of choice, thanks to her role as singer in mid-Nineties techno stars One Dove. Admired solo works, and collaborations with then-boyfriend Richard Fearless, Pete Doherty, Slam, Massive Attack and so on, cemented her latter reputation as Hoxton-bound queen of the waifs, and Exaltation Of Larks seemingly seeks to cash in on that crowd’s adulation of Bat For Lashes and the “new folk” revolution.
And what a crashingly boring effort it is. Allison’s voice is not unpleasant, but it’s nothing special, and laid wispily over the top of strummed guitars, spooling Rhodes lines and banjo tracks and discordant strings, it grates. While songs such as Quicksand and M’Adiez Call may seek to evoke a post-club sunrise over the East End, they are actually more reminiscent of a sixth-form poetry recital. In a narrow field, Allison’s efforts really limp along and are a very far cry from her previous noble output with Keith Tenniswood, Tim Simenon et al. Avoid.
More to try: Bat For Lashes: Fur And Gold Son Of Dave: 01 France Gall: 1968 Monica Zetterlund: Waltz For Debby
