Tracey Thorn

I’ve yet to see the film but no matter, for this is not your conventional movie soundtrack. It works as standalone, as ‘new album by Tracey Thorn’, for the clue is there in the title, these are just the ‘songs’ from that movie The Falling; no segues or cues, no instrumental passages of gentle noodling, nor any disturbing scrapes of soundscape that seem lost without the visuals. In fact the eight songs here, quiet, lovely demo-sketches, were composed and performed by Thorn, often as first takes, and then sent through to be placed in the film – Thorn never seeing the scenes to work from (as would seem to usually be the case).

It’s close in tone and particularly in running length to Thorn’s debut solo record. These murky, lovely little sketches of a song. And if the toyshop percussion is of mild distraction occasionally the real focus is Thorn’s wonderful voice, good as it’s ever been. And the songwriting. These are short-story songs, mood pieces that work in the way that short songs by Nick Drake and Magnetic Fields can say so much.

Ben Watt is in the producing chair, making this close to an Everything But The Girl release too. So there’s that – for fans.

Initially released as a special Record Store Day 10” it’s a charming curio, another wee piece of the puzzle in Thorn’s great catalogue. She has a new book too – and hopefully from the hints here a new full-length record too.

At less than 20 minutes in length it’s so easy to play this record twice in a row, three times even, the songs somehow feeling anew each time.