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Strange Weather

Songs like 'Suddenly', from her 2013 album One Breath had piqued my interest about Anna Calvi. When I heard the title track from her covers EP 'Strange Weather' the following year, the desire to acquire kicked in, and I ordered a vinyl copy of it (I can't recall why I didn't save myself a few pounds and get it on CD). In any event, I did not regret my purchase: it's an intriguing selection of songs confidently interpreted.

I wasn't familiar with FKA Twigs' 'Papi Pacify' before hearing Calvi's version. The original's electronic instrumentation is replaced here by piano, guitar, bass, drums & strings (the last arranged by Nico Muhly), building in an unsettling crescendo from a spare & soft beginning. Another then-recent song follows, in the shape of Connan Mockasin's vaguely creepy 'I'm the Man that will Find You'.

A couple of older compositions start and end side B: Suicide's 'Ghost Rider' and David Bowie's 'Lady Grinning Soul'. To my ears, the former, while by no means a bad effort, is the least successful version on the disc, whereas I am very fond of her take on the latter. Between them is 'Strange Weather', the song that led me to buy the record in the first place, an eerily beautiful arrangement of Keren Ann's 2011 original, on which Calvi duets with David Byrne.

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