Cathy Davey - The Nameless

It’s often that an album doesn’t fully click until it’s witnessed live, and such was the case with me and ‘The Nameless’. I’d been aware of Cathy Davey’s existence for quite a while (mainly three singles: ‘Reuben’ and ‘Moving’ (from second album ‘Tales of Silversleeve’); and ‘Little Red’, the lead single for this record), but had never really bothered to check out her other material. ‘Little Red’ sealed the deal, however, and I picked ‘The Nameless’ up the day after it was released - helping it to go straight in at #1 in the charts the following week, just by the way.

It revealed itself to me over repeated listens, but looking back now I can say for sure that there was something missing. It had stirring baroque-pop songs (‘Dog’ and ‘Habit’ among them) as well as more reflective moments such as ‘Wild Rum’ and the goosebump-inducing opening pair of the title track and ‘Army of Tears’, as well as plenty of emotional weight, but it didn’t quite fall into place before I saw her in October.

Maybe it was the intimacy of the surroundings; maybe it was that I didn’t realise quite how intricate her songs were until I saw the other six people stage with her; but I’ve put it down to one thing above all others, and it’s that the songs truly come into their own in a live setting. After all that I went back to ‘The Nameless’ and suddenly it was as clear as day. I could see it for what it was, easily one of the best albums of the year. As far as successful Irish singer-songwriters go, she’s streets ahead of everyone else. [GO’M]

[Go to her Myspace to hear three album tracks]