Battle & Victory

With an intuitive understanding of melody and dynamics, Nancy Elizabeth brings a refreshingly Northern turn of phrase to her debut album, Battle and Victory. The Lancashire-born singer's down-to-earth songs are brought to life by her warm and unaffected voice. Unpretentious but effortlessly ambitious, Elizabeth turns the retro, less-is-more aesthetic of the current acoustic revival on it's head. Not content with writing and singing all the songs herself, the 23-year-old also plays most of the instruments, including guitar, khim, Indian harmonium, Appalachian dulcimer, and bouzouki, among many others. Prominently featured is a 22-string Celtic harp, which she first picked up in 2005, after an inspirational chance meeting with a harp player at a Liverpool gallery. The album was recorded in a 17th Century white stone cottage in the remote Welsh countryside, and in a village hall outside Manchester. This intimate, uncontrived gem of a record uses a minimum of recording equipment, revealing the heartfelt honesty of her songs; it extends to grander, more complex arrangements when the occasion calls for friends to add cello, horns, and percussion. While her work is never in thrall to any particular musician or genre, Elizabeth calls to mind aspects of artists as diverse as Nina Nastasia, the Incredible String Band, Radiohead, Jackie McShee, Mogwai, Talk Talk, and Led Zeppelin.