Album review: Hannah Peel - The Broken Wave

Hannah Peel - The Broken Wave

As I plough through 2011's new album releases, I seem to be mining a seam of wispy, folky female singer songwriters. It's not a deliberate move, and the albums I am trying out seem to get more and more ethereal and dreamy.

That's certainly the case with Hannah Peel's The Broken Wave; an album that's the musical equivalent of having a cuppa and a flapjack at Glastonbury's Tiny Tea Tent on a wet Saturday morning. It's arguably the last musically offensive album ever made, with plinky-plonky folksy instrumentation and Peel's gentle, restrained vocals.

I have listened to other records this year that have gone in one ear and straight out of the other. The Broken Wave, however, takes light, airy music to a whole new level. I could listen to this a hundred times and I'm still not sure any of it would register. It's nice enough, of course, but ultimately far too forgettable to really love.