Holly Macve - Golden Eagle album review: Delighting in the darkness

"I was depressed, lost and lonely, in a dark place. So the songs are a bit fatalistic." Holly Macve ain't kidding. She was born in Galway but "whisked back" as a young child to her mother's native Yorkshire. There she was raised with her grandfather, whose death in 2015 inspired the haunting title track on Golden Eagle.

Holly Macve wears her past like a dark warm overcoat. Her country-tinged voice, cracked and forlorn one minute, swooping and soaring the next, navigates these starkly personal tales with the confidence of a 21-year-old making her debut. Others may hear Patsy Cline and Tarnation’s Paula Frazer, though I sense the spirit of a loner such as Townes Van Zandt in the voice of Marianne Faithful.

The album is a little one-paced, too delighted in its darkness, and the melodies need more sweetness. But Macve has something special; she just needs to build on it. hollymacve.com