Martha Wainwright - When The Day Is Short (Drowned In Sound)
UK release date: 20 June 2005
Despite the fact that she's released a staggeringly good debut album and performed some superb live shows, Martha Wainwright still isn't the household name she deserves to be. Of course, releasing singles with titles filled with copious amounts of swearing isn't going to garner you huge amounts of radio play...
When The Day Is Short may change all that though. It's got a blissfully lazy, country-ish melody, with gently brushed guitars and a subtle pedal steel in the background. Martha's in fine voice as well, drawing you to the heartbreakingly sad lyrics - "I don't care if you love me tomorrow/just love me tonight/and I will be alright/until tomorrow night" should be the saddest couplet you'll hear all year.
And that's Martha in a nutshell - she lures you in with the sweetest sounds and then, like an expert boxer, gives you a big old emotional wallop to the solar plexus. Buy this record and make her the star she should be.
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