Lindi Ortega: Liberty review – echoes of Morricone

Born in Toronto, the daughter of a country music-loving Irish mother and a Mexican father, Lindi Ortega lived in Nashville for a time. For her seventh album she travels to an imaginary border destination evoked in an impressive song-cycle that moves from darkness to light, from painful memory to where the "storm has passed".

Given her recent piece in lennyletter.com on dealing with body dysmorphic disorder, it is fair to assume that she is the character at the centre of these dramatic songs.

Ortega has developed a "country gothic noir" persona over the years and this fits perfectly with the spaghetti western sound of Ennio Morricone which permeates the album. Indeed the instrumental Through The Dust, which links the changing moods, could be his.

The other 12 tracks are redolent of early Calexico, all lonesome steel guitar and thick, twangy notes, though the outlier, You Ain't Foolin' me, echoes Blondie.

Tracks of note include the waltzing Nothing's Impossible, the snappy The Comeback Kid and the title track which sees the main character happily "riding towards the sun".

Here’s hoping her voice and her band are in such good shape when they play Dublin on June 2nd.