Lovely on the Water

Frankie has been one of the best singers of the revival female or male, from her earliest days, as these vintage recordings show. She has the ability to express the story of a song dramatically without imposing herself upon it. She also has the ability to adapt her voice to the emotional mood of the song without sounding phoney. Formidable talents both, and both are on display in this superb programme.

Many of these love songs belong to ancient ballad tradition; all of them are without evasion, for love that’s for real is hard, and hurts… the wistfulness she achieves in songs of loss or betrayal is inseparable from a tenuous strength. Her intonation is impeccably pure, yet the quivery ornamentation is vulnerable; her line is tautly unbroken, yet the phrasing has a feminine flexibility… The unaccompanied voice listens to itself in a stillness within mythological but outside chronological time…