Josienne Clarke
Josienne Clark delivers a sublime new collection of songs with the release of her first solo album In All Weather through Rough Trade. Fans of Josienne Clarke’s previous melancholic chamber folk duo will recognise her uniquely sorrowful and vocal style.
These new songs are sung and played in the manner written; emotionally raw and unvarnished. Josienne accompanies herself on acoustic and electric guitar joined by experimental piano prodigy Elliott Galvin, innovative jazz drummer Dave Hamblett, celebrated Scottish harpist Mary Ann Kennedy and guitarist/bassist Sonny Johns who co-produced the album with Josienne at Watercolour Studios in Fort William.
Opening track (Learning To Sail) In All Weather may start us off with the lyrics “Cruel and random love/life is cruel” but despite the melancholy there is a sense of peacefulness reverberating throughout the track. Josienne previously described it as “A prologue to the album as a whole. It speaks of both my hopelessness and my hope. The chorus is as much of a conclusion as it’s possible to come to.”
Differing arrangements throughout the album blend the delicacy of tracks such as Leaving London and the harp driven My Love Gave Me An Apple with fuller bodied previous single If I Didn’t Mind complete with driving guitar hooks in the vain of Lucy Dacus or Julien Baker, or 90’s inspired indie pop of Slender, Sad & Sentimental.
In All Weather is a record that lays bare with deeply intimate lyrics and conveys the hopelessness of change but leaves with a sense hope and fearlessness beautifully captured in the way Josienne sings “Nothing but blue skies do I See” on penultimate track Dark Cloud.
A truly wonderful album elegantly arranged and brilliantly executed.
Order direct from Rough Trade here.
Mark