Scarrow

For Salt House’s fifth album, Scarrow (meaning ‘faint light’), Ewan MacPherson and Jenny Sturgeon are joined by Northumbrian Anna Hughes on vocals, fiddle and viola (replacing Lauren MacColl), as well as bassist Ben Nicholls, and producer Andy Bell on synths. Beautiful opener ‘Autumn on the Run’ gazes skyward, with Sturgeon’s voice accompanied by her harmonium before a kaleidoscopic pattern of dulcimer and guitar add to the celestial display. ‘Take This Day’, sung by Hughes, is delightful pop-folk, while MacPherson takes lead vocals on ‘Cut Him Out in Little Stars’. Sturgeon returns on the delicately sombre ‘Fathoms’, drawn from a Gaelic source, with fine harmony vocals from Hughes, who then leads on nature song, ‘Headed Our Way’, with a prominent part for Nicholls’ double bass. It sags in the middle, through ‘Snow Walkings’’ choral vocals and maudlin ‘Horizon’, but picks up with ‘Blackbird’ – springtime’s songster – leading to the delights of ‘Waiting for Summer’.