I first encountered Miss W at a gig at The Westport Bar in Dundee - just heard the sound of a female singer coming from upstairs and thought "that's not Rachel Anderson", roamed up and there she was, standing on stage with an acoustic guitar, singing these riveting, enjoyable songs in a strong and emotive, mid-register voice. Absolutely instant, you just knew that here was talent. Only seen her once since, but that was every bit as good. Now we have her first CD with 6 tracks and 21 minutes of songwriting and arranging that's got more instrumental variation and depth by virtue of the assorted guests on electric guitars, bass and drums.
The first thing you notice is her languid approach, so that even though she has a strong voice, it makes you all relaxed and dreamy. The opener, "Jailbird", reveals multi-tracked vocal harmonies and a high-ish register lead vocal, as jangly guitars provide the meat of the lead instrumentation, with strong bass and crisp percussive foundations at the base of a song that truly flies, lyrically interesting and strongly blissful. "Dry Patches" is a slower number, beginning with slowly chiming guitars and flowing rhythmic touches, deep bas a focal point of the piece, as Beth's yearning and evocative vocal relate the story of her feelings and past experiences in the song's context.
At this point it's worth pointing out that anyone into the likes of Dido, Naimee Coleman and Beverley Craven are gonna be in heaven when they listen to this lady's songs and performance, and while I hate making comparisons, she's got all the signs of being every bit as good as any of those, for sure, and hopefully achieving the same lofty heights. "First One" continues the mood and flavour, only here a bit more urgent and intense sounding in the vocal, which soars and dives throughout the song, while the arrangement is more sprightly, even though still maintaining that relaxed feel.
"Are You Free" maintains the flow while "Black And Blue", the first track just to feature Beth and her favourite acoustic, provides a more jazzy flavour to the vocal as a truly emotive performance rises up and a chorus (of sorts) becomes actually quite memorable as the song travels on, her soaring higher vocal delivery relating a remarkably evocative set of lyrics, the guitar work strumming away to delicious effect, backing and not obscuring what is a really strong song. Finally, we move to the title track with initial acoustic guitar and bass backing a very emotional vocal performance and a song that makes you feel all gooey despite its strength and purpose. Shortly, economic percussion, piano and extra guitar are added, while the song attains the lofty heights of a female Damien Rice, with quite a strong feel of a couple of the songs of his last album (whose name I've completely forgotten) and showing just how well composed, arranged and sung that this last track really is.
Overall, a superb debut, one that never tires and draws you into its world every time you hear it. If there's room in this world for a couple of the best new female singer songwriters in Scotland right now (Beth and Rachel), Beth's in there first and showing that she's got the potential to succeed - big time.