Susan McKeown: Belong

Her voice, widely admired for its clarity and richness of tone, is getting better and better with age.

Ever more open, more welcoming, it's as if McKeown is coming closer to home and to herself, with each of her recent album releases. It's apt then, that this latest collection is titled Belong. Filled to bursting with songs that resemble diverse members of a single household, each one asserting its identity in suitably idiosyncratic fashion.

The strong opener, On The Bridge To Williamsburg, features an inspired duet with Declan O'Rourke but it's Lullaby of Manhattan that lassoes Belong into shape, with smoky echoes of Tom Waits and even a hint of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera in its audacious theatricality.

Thought-provoking and joint-swivelling in equal measure: quite an achievement.

[ susanmckeown.com ]