Anna Calvi’s new album Hunter; Kate Moss photographed in private by Mario Sorrenti

Anna Calvi’s new album oozes animal magnetism

Of course it’s terribly trendy to discuss gender fluidity right now, but for Anna Calvi, the twiceMercury-Prize-nominated English singer-songwriter, the issue isn’t just personal, it’s professional. Calvi is a bona fide guitar virtuoso, and she’s also an attractive young woman, and the combination of these two facts have led to her being both celebrated and fetishised (“What’s it like playing such a phallic instrument?” is a question she has said she frequently receives). So fair play, quite frankly, if she wants to challenge some of those perceived notions on her third album, Hunter. And boy (or girl), does she.

“I’m hunting for something,” she said about her new record. “I want experiences, I want agency, I want sexual freedom, I want intimacy, I want to feel strong, and I want to feel protected and I want to find something beautiful in all the mess.” She does this through the medium of lush gothic ballads like “Swimming Pool” and blistering power-pop such as lead single “Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy”. The production from Nick Launay (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grinderman) is dark and epic; Calvi’s voice swings from girlish speech to near-operatic vibrato; the guitar playing is, of course, virtuosic. But mostly, Hunter is an album that is unspeakably sexy, whatever — or whoever — may float your boat.

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Hunter by Anna Calvi (Domino) is out on 31 August