It’s always lovely to hear a new album from someone as acclaimed as Jane Allison, whose third album Like Magdalene was released back in June 2021, and it’s to my misfortune that it’s taken me so long to listen to it.
For those that are unfamiliar with Jane Allison, a Multi-talented award-winning songwriter Jane Allison from the Welsh town of Aberystwyth has a long and acclaimed history within the music industry originating in the early 1990s Childe Roland and X- Machina before forming new wave post-punk band KarmaDeva and touring extensively with such bands as The Zutons and Super Furry Animals along with supporting legendary acts such as Caravan, The Damned and Arthur Lee and Love.
The new album, Like Magdalene, is far removed from these new-wave post-punk days and hailed a sublime Folk/Americana that doesn’t just lend themselves to a pastoral landscape but an earworm of an album (I dare anyone not to be singing along to Banks of The Landwehrkanal) that dips from lowly Acoustica (Summer Wind) to full-blown folk/rock (Magdalene) and back to 60’s folk whimsy seamlessly under the supervision of Alonza Bevan, who many will remember from the band Kula Shaker, and there is a heavy influence back to those days when music felt as though there was an air of purity being recorded.
Like Magdalene is an album that achieves a rare achievement in hitting every right note, the selection of tracks blend perfectly with each other to create a wonderful listening experience that (and I will apologise here) took me far too long to review as I couldn’t stop listening to it!
- Like Magdalene by Jane Allison is available on Creosote Records (£10.00). To order a copy go to janeallison.net
Tom Stanger
Founder and Editor of Pilgrim House, currently undertaking a research degree at Bangor University and working on a book on Folklore and early Welsh Christianity. Tom’s other work on music, poetry, health along other writings and images can be found at tomasstanger.com
