“No man is, no man is, no man is an island / We’ll haul away, haul away, haul away, haul away my love.”
It is said that no (wo) man is an island, entire of itself, but if Liz Green’s highly acclaimed debut album O, Devotion! says anything it’s that she exists in a certain kind of isolation, as a uniquely exceptional, “eccentric and rather magical” artist, (to borrow words from The Guardian). One does not just stumble across her music to be left unmarked. She gives too much for that. Her first musical missives in 2007, set afloat like so many bottled messages, saw her win Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition before finding land in 2011’s full length, and now its emboldened follow up Haul Away!, due out via PIAS on 14 April 2014, is set to reach the most distant of shores.
“Haul Away! is about Communication. Language. The Insufficiency of Words. Home. How to Fit in. Escape. Sea. Elemental Forces. The Edge of Something. Travel. The End of Something. Mythology. Love Lost. And Death.” And “Obviously, I like to throw some death in there. I don’t want anyone to think I’ve changed too much. Actually, I think only one person dies on the album. The rest is open for debate. I’ve certainly shown them the way out. If they can’t find it, it’s their own fault!” Green jokes. Her second album then continues to speak to her unique character (as droll as it is dark) while it also finds her becoming a piece of the continent, a part of the main by realising that these “Lonely little songs need some company”. Luckily they have it in the form of a band of friends, who accompany her voice – a wonderfully warm melange of styles – and newly grounded piano compositions, surrounding them in bass, saxophone, drums, tuba, trombone, cello and flute “like a life raft or armbands.” Some of them even sound like her “most cheerful” songs to date.