The Last Town Chorus - Wire Waltz

The Last Town Chorus is basically a one-woman show, that woman being talented Brooklynite Megan Hickey. Hickey sings in a crystal-clear, achingly-harmonious voice, but it's her choice of instrument that distinguishes her from the abundance of chanteuses out there: a 1940s lap steel guitar that drenches her songs in a late-night wistfulness. Hickey can sound dangerously Dido-ish at times, and the invariably silky smooth tone means the Melua and Jones infested easy-listening shelves probably await her. But this isn't altogether fair, because songs like 'Caroline', 'Foreign Land' and the title track are unusual and firmly unsentimental, while her reinvention of David Bowie's 'Modern Love' as an ethereal work of heartbreak completely invigorates the original. Granted, Wire Waltz won't appeal to vast swathes of the listening public, but if it's music to soothe the soul that's needed, The Last Town Chorus will do it with class. [Nick Mitchell]