Mara Carlyle - Floreat

Her dazzling 2004 debut album may now be but a vivid aural memory, but, thankfully, British singer/songwriter/arranger Mara Carlyle returns with her eagerly anticipated second full-length Floreat on August 23 (U.K.).  Nuzzle was originally with the working title, though Muzzle would have been more apt. Plagued by the usual major label downsizing issues -- "yes, we own it, no, we're not going to release it and, no, you can't either" -- Floreat (loosely translated as "let her bloom") was conceived in 2008 but infuriatingly stalled. Now, finally, it's ready for its belated close-up. Written and arranged by Carlyle and produced by Dan Carey (Hot Chip, Emilíana Torrini), these are sweeping songs of ingenious indie invention, a heady mix of nuanced chamber/pop spiked with a potent chaser of dizzying, brainteasing spirits.

To execute the rather cinematic vision for her self-described songs "of love n' hate and love gone strange", Carlyle is methodically all over the place -- and who would want to contain her? Modern madrigals brush up against something called "Elizabethan ska." Stark, pulsing Euro-pop meets impossibly tender torch. With a voice that slides comfortably around a note -- we're thinking a less warbley Jane Siberry -- Carlyle sounds completely at ease on songs such as "The Devil & Me", a stately piano-based number that slowly strips back layers to reveal a warm beating heart. Never overreaching or even breaking a bead of sweat, "Bowlface en Provence" mixes the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, darting harmonies and a relentless, odd, pulsing time signature for a dark and dreamy bit of nocturnal pleasure. And in these confident hands, the dusty Brit traditional "Away With These Self Loving Lads" becomes a gently elegant, fingersnapped folk/soul confection.

Mara Carlile -"Away With These Self Loving Lads" (from Floreat)

Mara Carlyle - "The Devil & Me" (from Floreat)