Laura Stanley
Contributor
I’m not ashamed to admitthat I’m a fan of quirky female singer-songwriters and their ukuleles—an all-too-familiar setup. With her new album Passenger, Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan thrives in this realm of music.
After her creative split in 2007 with fellow Irish folk-singer Damien Rice, who is rumoured to have mistreated her, Hannigan began her own solo-career with the release of Sea Sew in 2008. Although it had undeniably catchy, strong tracks like “I Don’t Know” and “Lille,” it left something to be desired, feeling a little bit unfinished.
Passenger ties up those loose ends. Hannigan’s musically and lyrically defined album shows her maturity as an artist, touching on themes of love, loss, friendship, and travel.
Straying away from the quiet, instrumental sections found in
Sea Sew, which often blended in with Hannigan’s distinctly hushed voice, Passenger opens with a refreshing, full-bodied track, “Home.” This heavier instrumentation carries over throughout the album. Songs like “What’ll I Do” and “Knots” are full of energy. The music video for “Knots” features Lisa Hannigan being spray-painted in a white dress as she plays the ukulele.
Featuring an unexpected duet with Ray LaMontagne, “O Sleep,” the raspy voices of both singers certainly do mesh well together, yet the track is the only misstep on the album, albeit small. Although “O Sleep” brims with potential, a collaboration between two incredible folk musicians in their own right, its lulling, lacklustre melody does just that: puts you to sleep. But hey, maybe that’s the intention.
Both “Little Bird” and the title track “Passenger” are perhaps the most heartwarming songs from the record. Using various charming bird references, which are also used in “Nowhere to Go,” “Little Bird” is a simpler song, letting Hannigan’s dreamy voice take control. “Passenger” is heavily inspired by Hannigan’s time spent on the road, taking you on a trip across the U.S. Musically, the song develops from the soft picking of her ukulele at the beginning to the horn section takeover at the end.
Lisa Hannigan has grown as a songwriter and musician, still keeping her charming lyrical appeal intact.
