The seeds were sown for ’Whiskey Tango Ghosts’ on her last album, 2002’s long-awaited ’Beautysleep’. A former Throwing Muse and the frontperson of Belly a decade ago, Donelly has since matured into a songwriter with a love of smoky hotel bars and wistful, countrified elegance. It sounds like a side of her she’s been looking forward to exploring all her life.
While_ ‘…Ghosts’_ is all very pretty and nice, there isn’t quite enough to get your teeth into. It’s a slightly stronger album than ’Beautysleep’, but without standouts like the latter’s arch stomp ‘The Storm’, everything drifts together into a dreamy blur. The exception is ‘Golden Mean’, a bewitching piano piece during which Tanya trembles, “I’m in a sea of honey pouring down on me.” Ooh err, missus.
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6Tom Edwards's Score