| Allmusic |
 Angela Desveaux's debut album, Wandering Eyes, was the work of an artist so accomplished that it was difficult to imagine she'd never made a record before. By comparison, her second disc, recorded with the help of her new backing band the Mighty Ship, doesn't pack quite the same wallop as the first set, if only because as a performer she's as precociously gifted as she was on her first sessions but not dramatically more so, though the honey-sweet flow of her Emmylou Harris-meets-Lucinda Williams delivery still enchants. But Angela Desveaux & the Mighty Ship does reveal that in the two years between albums she's improved as a songwriter; the melodies on this album are graceful and emphatic while fitting her voice like a glove, and her songs about the peaks and valleys of love have a bit more experience and weight behind them, which serves them well. Desveaux also has a fine band collaborating with her; guitarist Mike Feuerstack, bassist Eric Digras, and drummer Gilles Castilloux are all solid musicians, and collectively their grasp of nuance and dynamics is a thing of beauty to behold, gently commanding a remarkable degree of emotional force. While Brian Paulson was brought in to produce Desveaux's debut, here she and her bandmates ran the sessions in tandem with Dave Draves, and they've done an impressive job, capturing the ambience of a live performance while allowing every nook and cranny to be heard and carry its share of the weight. This is a splendid recording of ten fine songs from an artist poised to become one of the leading singer/songwriters of the day, and if it lacks the sense of surprise that accompanied her first effort, Angela Desveaux & the Mighty Ship is on repeat listenings an even more satisfying work....full text |
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| Popmatters |
Angela Desveaux, the Montrealean songwriter with roots in rural Cape Breton, has a rich country-tinged voice and a fondness for traditional instruments. Still, her second album, Angela Desveaux & the Mighty Ship, is mostly a rock record, with strident beats and clean, simple guitar solos. Her band—guitarist Mike Feuerstack of the Wooden Stars, bassist Eric Digras, and drummer Gilles Castilloux—is much the same as on debut Wandering Eyes, but they’ve developed a knack for emphatic beats and clear, well-structured instrumental breaks. Feuerstack has some particularly good, well-thought-out guitar solos, on the rock side in “Other Side” and “Hide from You”, and in a more country-blues idiom on “Shape You”. Sure, there are occasional twangs of pedal steel, now-and-then delicate, vibrato vocal flourishes, and a couple of songs in country waltz-time to show her traditional roots. But for the most part she sounds strong and sure and indie-rocking, a latter-day Juliana Hatfield or Kristin Hersh.
Maybe the main element that links her to country legends from Patsy Cline to Lucinda Williams is her subject matter. Desveaux’s main preoccupation here seems to be strong women caught in self-destructive relationships. It’s a reminder that, even now, even for girls who write their own songs and lead their own bands and have the last word on every aspect of their careers, love can still be a problem, the one thing that undoes all the independence. The men in these songs are always falling short, always leading their women astray, and the women, whether Desveaux herself or a fictional character, are always putting up with them. The gap between the strong, self-assured singer that Desveaux demonstrably is, and the lonely, desperate-for-love women that populate her songs, is one of the most interesting things about this very interesting album....full text |
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| Pitchforkmedia |
Title tracks are often emblematic of the albums they adorn, but Angela Desveaux's "Mighty Ship" feels like a red herring on the album that shares its name. Montreal-based Desveaux is being sold as a singer steeped in traditional country music influences, yet "Mighty Ship" is the only song on the record that deeply reflects an antiquarian sensibility, either musically or lyrically, evoking church hymns and agrarian hardships in its portrayal of a young woman who has lost her husband at sea.
Initially, this title track's singularity seems like a disappointment. So much of what claims a kinship with country in indie spheres only utilizes the genre for cosmetic purposes, ornamenting things with a little pedal steel rather than really digging into something timeless and substantial, as "Mighty Ship" manages with its mournful horns and sad Christian reverence. The remainder of The Mighty Ship may lack such distinctive roots, but in its place Desveaux offers something more satisfying, if less regional. Namely, much of the rest of her album is marked by punchy pop-rock and plenty of sharp hooks, retaining just enough twang for Desveaux to emerge as a worthy inheritor to Lucinda Williams and Rosanne Cash, two women savvy enough to explore ruralist attitudes without neglecting the distinct physical pleasures of well-crafted modern pop. Patently conjuring revered, bygone c&w can quite honestly be a crutch, and there's nothing artificially propping up the tight, sprightly sprint of "Sure Enough", the spacious riffing of "Hide From You" or the moody, 1980s AOR thrum of "Shape You". The sadder, slower likes of "Other Side" and "Joining Another" may register more closely to country by the sheer fact of their solemnity, but there's no dirt underneath their nails and that's fine, since neither song is exactly boasting a sharecropper's lineage anyway....full text |
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