Following Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack out of Bristol are Phantom Limb – but don’t expect this lot to provide the same aural oddities that their fellow UK south-west inhabitants do. As self-described purveyors of ‘country-soul’, the sextet impart an altogether more straightforward sound than any of the above, but their debut album is no less enjoyable for it.
Originally formed in 2004, Phantom Limb are a band that hail from individually diverse backgrounds – frontwoman Yolanda Quarty most recently toured as Massive Attack’s vocalist, for one – but were apparently drawn together by a love of harmony-heavy country music that borrows from both classics and contemporaries of the genre.
And both influences are evident throughout the course of Phantom Limb’s 55 minute duration; with one foot in an acoustic, roots-based territory (the straight-outta-Nashville ‘Withering Bones’, swoonsome old-time ballad ‘My Love Has Gone’) and the other in willful progression (the skewed chillout-rock and interesting chord changes of ‘I’ll Never Be the Same Again’ and ethereal, Cocteau Twins-alluding ‘We Will Carry’), there’s just about enough diversity to keep things ticking over.
Quarty’s powerhouse vocal performance helps, too; the 23-year-old’s husky, chocolate-covered, soul-drenched voice is as big as her personality presumably is, and carries several of the over-done numbers (‘Playing With Death’, for one) to majestic conclusions. Adeptly carrying the ‘multi-layered harmony’ torch lit by Fleet Foxes, this is a sturdy debut effort that grows with every listen.
Key Track: ‘We Will Carry’