Anaïs Mitchell

★★★★ Anaïs Mitchell BMG. CD/DL/LP

Bonny Light Horsewoman’s hypnotic, reflective first solo release since 2014.

Critically acclaimed but lowkey, Mitchell had a breakthrough when her narrative album Hadestown became a Grammy-winning musical. Having spent 15 years on that project, when Covid hit she moved with her husband from NYC to a remote Vermont farmstead and began writing once more from her own perspective. Shimmering and lushly piano-led, Brooklyn Bridge sees her floating through the city at night, her voice blending Louise Goffin and Rickie Lee Jones. The gently acoustic Real World is where she’s at now, and it’s earthy, tactile and sensual, from the “real grass, real clouds over pastures” to “your real hands on my hips”. Mitchell isn’t starry-eyed – memories return of small-town racism, the weight of growing up female – but things have changed, and the rural life performs surprising magic. Deceptively simple, the result is a lovely thing.