Into The Light

As a regular presence on the UK folk scene as solo artist and in tandem with singer-songwriter Clive Gregson, Christine Collister has provided enough magical moments over the past two decades to justify her entry in the history books, but her latest offering sounds generally tired and lacklustre. The enterprise is hardly helped by a run-of-the mill production and a dull musical back-up that verges on rent-a-riff.

Thankfully, there are exceptions. She brings a fresh approach to U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ and her version of Gareth Wall’s ‘Fallen Angel’ has a subtle Dylanesque quality that makes it one of the album’s highlights. But Paul Simon’s ‘Quiet’ is distracted by superfluous sound effects (waves, how original) and Roddy Frame’s ‘Hymn To Grace’ lacks the sparkle you’d expect from her previous work.

The remaining songs are mostly Collister’s own and they seem merely work(wo)manlike rather than personal and real, although ‘A Kinder Heart’ and the Joni Mitchell-like ‘Act Of Kindness’ are sturdy enough to overcome the mundane arrangements and the session playing by numbers approach of her band members. Only on her ‘Brittle Man’ do they stir themselves into something resembling life.

Collister’s voice is generally as welcoming and as effortlessly mellow as ever, but somehow the energy and the urgency of yore are missing. Maybe next time.