“Wrought Iron” is Nancy Elizabeth’s second album. A spectral tale narrated by a folk motive. Reminiscent of PJ Harvey’s “White Chalk”, I thought, this long play is an introspective journey into solitude. The same solitude that has been a reliable source of inspiration for many works by Nancy Elizabeth up until now.
Her first album “Battle & Victory” released in 2007 was produced in a 17th Century cottage in the remote Welsh countryside, and a village hall outside Manchester. The songs in “Wrought Iron” have also ripened far from the urban life, in the fertile ground of the Aragon region in Spain and the Faroe Islands, to be later recorded in North Wales.

The album is therefore a product of the artist’s intense reflection and intimacy, to which you are introduced by the exquisitely instrumental “Cairns”. This track opens with a delicate piano sobbing its way through a sad and captivating melody. As the music plays on, it becomes even more involving. The arrangement in the single “Feet of Courage” is of particular charm, as its clattering and isolated percussions accompany Nancy Elizabeth’s husky yet mellifluous vocals to a ghostly and out-of-this-world effect. The sense of alienation and loneliness becomes clearer, deeper and bleaker in the “Lay Low” lyrics and as she sings “I felt so scared and stranger than everyone”, she must know being away from everyone and everything has certainly paid off.

Caring, patient and attentive as the artisan who forges and welds his Wrought Iron piece, Nancy Elizabeth has created a refined example of sonic craft.

By Liza Adebisi

Rating: 8/10 
Label: The Leaf Label
www.nancyelizabeth.co.uk
www.myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe