The West country singer-songwriter and guitarist brought her new album into the world on 5th April, so we’re a bit late to the party with this one. It’s a follow on from 'The Darkling' released in 2022, and The World reflects a new life stage, embracing change.
Fragile, haunting, ethereal, openly vulnerable and daunting, Sue Harding’s new album ‘The World’ has a raw, aching beauty all its own. Personally, my top pick from the ten self-written tracks is ‘Capitano’, with its lilting, melodic chorus.
It’s not surprising to learn that the title ‘The World’ comes from the tarot card, as there is an other-worldly theme and essence throughout. Sue is inspired by the all-embracing nature of the Tarot – and its rich resonance using metaphor, poetry and imagery – is an enticing palette for any artist – but Harding seems to delve right in there. If all the world’s a stage, then the stories and characters in The World echo a Shakespearian spectrum of tragedy, comedy, folklore and history.
‘The World’ has a twist of drama, steeped in poetry and the stark imagery for which Harding is becoming renowned. My personal favourite, ‘Capitano’, is incidentally written about and for Gabriel Morena, the poet and songwriter recently reviewed for F&T with the outstanding ‘Nights in the Belly of Bohemia’. That vibrant, colourful sense of character stands out.
The opening track, ‘Barflies’, with its sense of fun and bawdiness of ‘old folks behaving badly in bars.’ Sounds about right. ‘The Bloody Rose’ is a twisted version of the Bonnie & Clyde legend, but with a ‘dose of American gothic.’
I particularly liked ‘Lady Electra’ with its sense of drama and somewhat tongue in cheek. Electra, of course, the younger daughter of Agamemnon who sought revenge on her own mother for her father’s sticky end – but here it’s a wisp of wry humour, rockier and a bit of a crowd pleaser, whereas some of the other tracks are deeply incisive and poetically astute – ‘Edge of the Day’, ‘Old Glass’, ‘Icebergs’, and again picking up on the classics theme, ‘Sirens’ – as Harding says, the story of the Sirens fascinates, while the feminine in Greek mythology is finally being told.
Sue Harding’s vice is certainly unique, with heartfelt delivery and a haunting, ethereal quality, sensitive yet striking at times, she seems like a female Leonard Cohen, and at other times, I was oddly reminded of Velvet Underground vibes – for no obvious reason, it’s just what came to mind.