Martha Wainwright – Goodnight City: Beauty amidst jagged edges

Singer-songwriters often use their personal lives for ammunition but spare a thought for the offspring when they suffer in their parents' stories. Martha Wainwright famously kicked back against her father Loudon Wainwright but on her fourth solo album the unease with a life lived in public remain. She has said that her music can be fraught. Certainly jagged edges abound; the opening track Around the Bend, both in topic and Kate Bush-like tenor, sets the anxious tone. Equally there are sombre beautiful moments such as the piano ballad One of Us, which sounds as if penned by her aunt Anna McGarrigle. Franci is a proud mother's joy while the parlour room ballad Francis references the intimate style of her late mother Kate. Wainwright is, however, a serious talent in her own right, shaking off comparisons with parents and sibling Rufus, by pushing the margins, albeit sometimes to edgy excess.

marthawainwright.com