
Carys Calling: You sense the mood is laced with secobarbital on Seeing Red
In the mood for a folk track that believes there’s more to the genre than just ripping off Laura Marling?
The latest single from Newcastle songwriter Carys Calling is a song of delicate and graceful folk, that has just enough electronic embellishes to help her stand out from her peers and have them seeing red.
Opening with the sort of plucked melody that you could imagine Evanescence writing if they were in the midst of a Red House Painters binge, the mood is disarmingly warm – so much so that you sense the mood is laced with secobarbital. Slumber is held off, though, by a rumbling bassline and a lashing of electronic bleeps that hint at the trip-hop influence of Massive Attack. It’s a pleasing development and one that allows Seeing Red to close promising that Carys Calling is more than just another nu-folk pretender.
Seeing Red won’t be filling dancefloors any time soon and feels more like a strong album track than a hit single, with the hooks too polite to demand your attention. That, though, should not put you off, for it marks Carys Calling as one of the more interesting folk exponents currently on the circuit, and one to keep an eye on in the coming months.
Verdict: Soothing folk with electronic tinges
Damien Girling
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