Franka De Mille

Well it looks as if we have another sub-genre to add to the list: Chamber-folk! At least for Franka De Mille’s music anyway. If that brings visions of arran jumpers, pipes, real ale blended with white powder wigs and faces, cellos, violins and polite society, well you’d be well off because Bridge the Roads, is pretty mainstream singer/songwriter fare, with an infusion of Gallic barroom sleaze.

Opener Come On is a jaunty, laidback acoustic tune with as slight essence of Floyd in there. Fallen follows; an enjoyable fiddle based tune wouldn’t sound out of place on a holiday or food programme. Solo takes us on a melancholic route with the violin again at the core. This taken with Gare du Nord takes us into the Parisian twilight world of Montmartre’s, smoky bars and clubs, part sung in French too.

There’s more traditional folky fare with the likes of Birds and the quite upbeat You’ll Never Know. With So Long the album takes a left turn into darker territories of jarring strings and disembodied vocals and harmonies; the best track on the album.

The album closes with the soulful piano led Oh My, the feelgood, Bridge the Roads, and an acoustic version of Gare du Nord.

So, we have an album that showcases Ms De Mille’s voice, and toys with jazz, folk and blues but never really giving away its hand. It’s a deep, very personal album to the writer, though not impenetrable to others. It flows well, though the strings at times sound as if they were added without thought and feel incongruous. It’s a solid debut.