Album Review: Gemma Hayes, Blind Faith

Ten years since her last album, 2014’s Bones + Longing, the marvellous Gemma Hayes returns with nine beautiful songs, sketched in her family home in West Cork. The plucked strings and breathed vocal on gorgeous opener ‘Eye For An Eye’ make for a hushed lullaby, while ‘Central Hotel’ bleeds a lo-fi chant into an exquisite flashback of a now faraway love.

Paul Noonan of Bell X1 performs a fine turn duetting on ‘Another Love’, while ‘Hardwired’ is a classic slice of Gemma Hayes indie rock, reminiscent of her Mercury-nominated 2002 debut Night On My Side.

By album centrepiece ‘Feed The Flames’ – co-written by and featuring Lisa Hannigan – we’re motoring, as the album really finds its groove.

Hayes has stated that she had stopped writing for a long time, having lost the urge – she went from living music every day to going months without it. But on closer ‘Return Of The Daughters’, she has never sounded better. It’s really good to have her back.

8/10