Album review: Anna Calvi, One Breath (Domino)

On her second album, Anna Calvi has lost much of the distinctive guitar work that helped make her debut so intriguing, but gained a deeper breadth of texture and structure to carry her emotional excursions. At first, it seems as if she's gone for a full-blown populist rock sound: "Suddenly" opens with predatory verses before erupting into the full Florence on the choruses; "Eliza" seems too simple a stomp. But things improve: "Piece by Piece" blends sleek strings with bursts of de-tuned guitar, and there's a lovely discordant twang to the guitar fills on "Cry". "Carry Me Over" offers the album's most compelling arrangement, climaxing with expansive strings and industrious marimba supporting Calvi's wordless wailing.

Download: Carry Me Over; Cry; Piece by Piece