Lisa Hannigan returns on a wave of splendid melodies At Swim

When a new Lisa Hannigan music video popped up in my feed, everything stopped. Tentative as a child at Christmas hoping their long awaited toy is held within the box I hit play. As the slow swaying guitar, rich lyricism and as usual flawless vocals from Hannigan set in and then faded out I was certain that this newest album was well worth the wait. It has after all been five years since Passenger and eight since Sea Sew, the success of her last records would make you think there would have been a rush to record, print and push new records. Cash in quickly before the public forgets. Yet, Hannigan, who has a self-confessedly hard time with writer's block, seems to understand that the beauty of art is when you can feel the time and thought put into it. So five years isn't such a long time to wait for another album that matches her earlier masterpieces of folk-rock-blues and adds something new to them too!

Visually the music video fits perfectly with the ambiance and conflicting nature at the heart of Hannigan's music. Beautiful, strong, fragile, messy, perfect, misty and caught on nature's ride. The whole album is well constructed, each track self-contained could tell a whole tale yet when taken together as an album the experienced lyricist takes you on a real journey. At Swim shows an artist continuing to grow, careful yet never boring in her choices, always avoiding bad pastiche; instead helping to innovate the modern folk sound.

'Lo' is one of my absolute favourites on this album, it has a very funky progressive rythm and a playful folk melody sits atop lyrics which are fantastically penned, I love the bridge "Can I smile to your face?" - Hannigan takes such a simple question and makes it sound massively profound. 

Tender is another favourite, with it's swelling Waltz style interrupted occasionally by a lively fiddle or Hannigan with a poetic word. The arrangements and ambiance of this record are incredible, the blending of the bewitchingly dark tracks like 'We, The Drowned' with tracks like 'Lo' is executed perfectly.While, the final track of the album Barton is a slightly surreal send off to the listener, layering Hannigan's controlled and pleasing wailing over an at once comforting and disquieting backing track. 

At Swim offers the listener stark imagery to inspire their imagination, tracks that they will keep returning to for the nuances in composition and themes. As always Lisa Hannigan manages to leave the listener authentically moved and wanting more.