Having recorded one acclaimed solo album, and numbers with the Manic Street Preachers among others, Catherine Anne Davies has staked her claim to a sort of ornate rock that few these days are pursuing. Recording as The Anchoress, Davies is back with The Art of Losing, her new album on Kscope that's out tomorrow.
From the the elegiac "Let It Hurt", a number that recalls solo John Lennon at his most confessional, and on to the duet with James Dean Bradfield of the Manics, "The Exchange", a listener is rewarded almost instantly on The Art of Losing. Davies imbues this stuff with enough real heft to make it engaging. On the surface, things are slick, even seamless, and the emotions ones that are contained. Still, Davies, like David Bowie before her, conveys emotions in a style that's at once theatrical and semi-aloof. The title track here has percussion that Kate Bush would have killed for in The Dreaming-era, but the cut is more angular and focused than Kate's brand of art rock. Davies favors an approach that's precise, the moments of high drama ones that feel earned as the layers of instruments and samples approach a fever pitch at times. "Show Your Face" recalls the Manics a bit, but it also echoes moments on the Kylie Minogue record featuring those guys. The Anchoress isn't afraid of pop, but is careful in how she approaches the form. And that restraint is what gives the moments of release here throughout The Art of Losing so much power.
While the first half of The Art of Losing favors louder numbers, the second half highlights ballads. Here, like on "My Heart is a Lonesome Hunter", The Anchoress allows her voice to get as much attention as the arrangements do. What was punchy and fiery in the early tracks on this album, becomes something stark and frequently breathtaking in its second half. The tunes crackle in an obvious Rock fashion, and then the bottom half of the whole thing turns in another, more refined direction. Comparisons to Annie Lennox and Kate Bush seem apt, I guess, but I kept coming back to Bowie. Catherine Anne Davies really seems to owe a debt to how the late David Bowie approached material. By placing as much importance on arrangements and production as on delivery, like Bowie usually did, the songs achieve the neat feat of pleasing both the brain and the heart. And that blend of the theatrical with the passions of rock-and-roll, a blend that worked so well for David, also works so well here. In that sense, Catherine Anne Davies is a rarity today in the current musical climate. Call this art rock if you want, but it's as accessible as possible, without anything being sacrificed in terms of artistic punch.
The Art of Losing is out tomorrow on Kscope.
More details on The Anchoress via the official website
[Photo: Isabella Charlesworth]