We’ve previously highlighted her single, Garden of Eden, and the singer-songwriter from Ripon in Yorkshire’s third LP of folk-pop lives up it with its hushed, intimate vocals and an understated maturity that echoes Fiona Apple and Billie Eilish. Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, and Kate Bush are other obvious influences. Still only 21, Isabella Sophie Tweddle has one of those voices that has range of deep and sweetly whispery and vulnerable, and the running floral theme is a metaphor to reflect on her own imperfections and personal growth as well as the precariousness of the human race in terms of mother nature. Her voice enjoys its full range on the striking Creature of Mine. There’s dark thrum of foreboding on Human Replacement, Liquid Love has a beautiful fragility, Heaven soars with rich guitar backing, Ruin has a lovely, almost comically limping, shuffle rhythm where she tells of ‘a war with my body’, while Kill The Clown builds powerfully into a declaration against her still apparently tender youth. “It is natural to think everything's your fault / After all, I am not a baby doll / I've got bills to pay and they never go away.” Aquarium, the final track, is a frank and beautiful track about how much she depends on others. Marten may still be growing as an artist and there’s plenty of dirt to deal with, but there’s nothing childish about her work. Out on Fiction Records/Universal, but can also be explored via the Soundcloud link below, or her website.
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