Away Beyond the Fret

East Anglian husband and wife duo Lucy and Jon Hart have coincided their third album with the birth of their daughter. This significant detail and the title, meaning beyond the sea mist, suggest optimism and positivity and this is immediately present in opener ‘Dear Grandmother’, a bright, bouzouki-led number exploring the miracle of human reproduction. Although Lucy is a great singer and both are stellar musicians, at points the vocals and arrangements flirt with tweeness. Despite this, there can be no denying that the music they produce is of high quality, and intelligent, with the complexity present on their first two albums continuing here. ‘Over Land Over Sea’ is a good example of this, a dramatic maritime tale with an edge of darkness creeping from the percussion and guitar lines.

Elsewhere, the miniature ‘Do You Keep It Underneath’ is wonderful; a smuggler tune played to just minimal percussion, this sinister little number is bang in the middle of the set and my pick. The restraint on this song is less present on pieces like ‘Finn’s Jig’, which gets a bit too swashbuckling, but songs like ‘The Trying’ rein it back in. An admirable album then, but one that works best when the songs are dialled down a touch.