Polly Scattergood

Arrows

Mute

Street: 06.18

Polly Scattergood = Beth Orton + Sinéad O’Connor

What a refreshing and novel concept for an album in 2013: songs of heart break and loneliness without any cloying traces of hip-hop or rapping on them.  The very talented Scattergood bares her heart completely for her sophomore album and that young, refreshing voice—so properly British at times, especially when she speak-sings—produces chills, like on the stunner “Miss You” and to a lesser degree on “I’ve Got A Heart” and “Machines”. Lyrically she seems to be of the Leonard Cohen/Susanne Vega/Amos Lee  singer/songwriter school (intelligent and quirky) and she could teach her contemporaries a thing or two about melody and song structure.  The intimately catchy “Cocoon” and the epic “Colours Colliding” lead to “Disco Damaged Kid,” which are as fine as it suggests. The hooky “Falling” possesses arguably the most pop-driven melody of all, followed closely by the mesmerizing lead single “Wanderlust”.  –Dean O Hillis