Album review: Blue Roses

Blue Roses is the recently adopted nom de plume of Bradford songstress Laura Groves. It’s inappropriate: the flower doesn’t exist naturally, but her music couldn’t sound more organic if she marked up its price and flogged it in Tesco. ‘Blue Roses’, you see, is less Nash and more Bush, a dizzyingly beautiful set of delicate folk songs that sound like they’ve been sprinkled with pixie dust and reincarnated from some perfect bygone age. Pitched somewhere between Joanna Newsom and Joni Mitchell, Groves’ layered voice guides highlights ‘Coast’ and ‘I Am Leaving’ skilfully through these oft-travelled waters, and towards the safe haven marked ‘contemporary classics’.

Rob Webb

More on this artist:
Blue Roses NME Artist Page
Blue Roses MySpace

8 out of 10