Album Review: Brave Tin Soldiers by Sarah Nixey

Self-proclaimed ice maiden Sarah Nixey may possess the kind of crisp, English RP accent that makes Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Sarah Cracknell sound like unintelligible loudmouths, but as anyone familiar with her work with Black Box Recorder will know, voices can be deceptive. While her detached headmistress tones may conjure up images of boarding school assemblies and social etiquette lessons, her second solo album, Brave Tin Soldiers, deals with subjects so macabre that even Nick Cave would turn them down for being too bleak. "Gathering Shadows," a gentle slice of melancholic pop with occasional bursts of hymnal choral vocals, is a heartbreaking murder ballad about a gun-toting father, the shuffling gothic folk of "Black Rose" recounts the tale of Betty Corrigall, the ostracized, unmarried 16th century woman who killed herself after becoming pregnant, while the Motown-tinged Baroque pop of "Silent Hour" addresses the 2010's spate of teen suicides in Bridgend.

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Sarah Nixey made a name for herself in the late 1990s and 2000s as the lead singer of U.K. band Black Box Recorder, alongside Luke Haines (of The Auteurs) and John Moore (of Jesus And Mary Chain). In 2007 Sarah released her debut solo album, Sing, Memory, an alluring collection of dance pop and icy torch ballads graced by Sarah’s distanced and cool-tone, airy vocals.

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