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| Pitchfork |
 Anna Calvi recently listed classical composer Claude Debussy, filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai, and Flamenco music as influences on her self-titled debut album. While none of these signifiers seem to directly shape her music, Calvi's record feels like it has much in common with cinema and literature. She uses sonic textures to evoke feelings-- from spaghetti-western guitars to her lung-busting take on gothic melodrama. Musically she's indebted to a lineage of female songwriters from Edith Piaf and Patti Smith to PJ Harvey.The latter comparison is bolstered by the appearance of longtime Harvey collaborator Rob Ellis on production duties. His rangy, atmospheric handling of the music is one of the record's standout qualities. While the sound is suitably bombastic, Ellis also takes care to open up enough emptiness in the mix to allow Calvi's twisting guitar to snake with menace. On the strongest moments, such as "No More Words", Calvi pushes herself into darker territory, as Ellis allows cavernous space to open up, her voice and guitar sounding as if they are being played into a black hole. It's also one of the softest songs on the record, crafting a coiled feeling when Calvi's voice quietens to a whisper, hanging like a thread but never snapping. The restraint has an edge to it that feels provocative. Still there are moments where Calvi ratchets up the drama too readily, and sometimes hams it up-- see "I'll Be Your Man", which comes across as campy. More often than not, however, Calvi gets the balance right: "Suzanne and I" feels grand as it lurches from bare guitars underpinned by pounding drums into a skeletal breakdown. The delicacy of its second half-- ghostly, yearning singing and spacey fingerpicking-- makes for a bigger payoff when the drums kick back in and her guitar doubles the vocal lines, giving the ending a truly anthemic quality....full text |
| Bbc |
| Before even releasing her debut album, Anna Calvi has been lauded by Brian Eno, included in the BBC’s influential Sound of 2011 list and toured with Interpol and Nick Cave’s Grinderman. Dizzy heights indeed for a young woman with just one single to her name, but a string of intense, captivating live shows over the past year have generated a buzz of excitement about this London-based, half-Italian singer-songwriter. The first thing that strikes you about her eponymous album is what an immensely confident record it is. Its creator has apparently spent the past three years perfecting its songs, and the end result is a fully formed, multi-faceted sound that engages the listener’s attention from the very first note. Opener Rider to the Sea begins with a series of stark, elegantly atmospheric guitar chords reminiscent of Mogwai, instantly showcasing Calvi’s virtuoso musical abilities. Two minutes in, her haunting, cacophonous voice is heard tantalisingly in the background for the first time before retreating back into the ether. This juxtaposition of guitar and voice is central to proceedings, although there are also strong contributions from a tight backing band. Eno compared Calvi to Patti Smith, and while she doesn’t possess the legendary punk-poetess’ lyrical brilliance, the almost shamanic intensity of her performances certainly suggests a kindred spirit. PJ Harvey is another obvious reference point, especially as the two women share a producer, Rob Ellis....full text |
| Guardian |
| Pedantry first. This rather fine debut album by singing guitarist Anna Calvi finds her howling: "The Devil! The Devil will come!" on a lonesome guitar track called "The Devil". It uncannily recalls a keening piano track, also called "The Devil", on PJ Harvey's criminally underrated White Chalk album. Buy it from Buy the CD Anna Calvi Anna Calvi Domino 2011 There's more. Rob Ellis, Harvey's regular drummer, is the co-producer of this elegant, harmonium-heavy, 10-track debut. The timbre of Calvi's voice quite often recalls the antic Polly, and the dramatic themes in her songs – desire, loss, devils, female manfulness – have been previously explored by Harvey. But we should not hold any of this against Calvi. Are there ever any true originals? It is probably impossible for a British woman to pick up a guitar and sing alto in a minor key about anything emotionally significant without recalling Harvey. Moreover, Harvey has a new album out soon, in which she rewrites the British folk idiom. It sounds nothing like this. So Calvi is no mere Harvey copyist. If Florence Welch had stayed on the course signalled by her early song "Girl With One Eye", she might have arrived in quite a similar place to Calvi, who comes from south-west London, the plush yang to Welch's grittier south-east yin. Drama is key. Calvi's debut single – "Jezebel", not included here – was a song once sung by Edith Piaf, in which Calvi's default goth operatics were laid bare. Devils, tick. Desire, tick. Jezebels, check. Even though there is no mention of roses, you know where you are with Calvi – tilting at perdition, red lipstick sharpened. But she can be original, too. The first track here ditches the try-hard pop rule that states that you must start an album with your most accessible song, to hook in the punters with ADHD. Instead, "Rider to the Sea" is a wandering guitar instrumental, in which reverb alternates with pregnant pauses to delicious effect. Throughout the album, Calvi is revealed as a twang-loving guitarist obsessed with trying to make her instrument sound as hollow and menacing as a bottomless pit. Her greatest asset, however, is the generous range of her sound, from microscopically detailed hush to gale-force....full text |
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