INGA LILJESTROM – BLACK CROW JANE

This is the album you have been waiting for. You, that is, who have seen Inga Liljestrom live, who have listened to her first two albums, and who have waited for six years for album number three to materialise. While 2005’s ELK garnered much deserved acclaim, there remained a feeling that Liljestrom was a work in progress, that there was better to come, and with Black Crow Jane she has delivered. In the intervening years Liljestrom has moved to France (given her European cinematic inclinations that comes as no surprise) and given birth, not that there is much indication of the later material wise. Indeed motherhood has not diminished her sexuality in any way: “So I rode my wildest horse…I let him feel the weight of me”. Musically the scope has broadened, beyond the obvious and more occasional Bjork moments – Drowning Song – there is a tougher more blues based approach, with PJ Harvey an obvious touch stone, particularly on Mascara Black. The albums opening track The Rain and the Sea is a standout, its hushed beginnings blossoming and expanding into  dirty blues roots number that sweeps itself overboard. Black Crow Jane is the fully realised album Liljestrom has promised, her voice not only both emotive and evocative as before, but now confident and assured.

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