The Breath
‘Let the Cards Fall’ is the new album from Manchester’s The Breath. Underscoring the remarkable connection between guitarist Stuart McCallum and singer, lyricist and flautist, Ríoghnach Connolly, their music journeys from lush, beguiling storytelling to uplifting, punch-the-air anthems.
The follow-up to their 2016 breakthrough album, ‘Carry Your Kin’, ‘Let the Cards Fall’ is a bewitching collection of songs allowed to mature and breathe without losing the widescreen, multi-textured kaleidoscope of sound that marked their debut, while refining their trademark Manchester take on alt-folk.
For the Breath, it’s all about the song. Connolly writes the only way she knows how; a stream of poetic consciousness giving rise to honest, personal, heartfelt songs as likely to touch on childhood summers and first love as cultural dislocation, post-colonial injustices and grief. But it’s her deeply soulful, utterly engaging, stop-you-in-your-tracks voice – whether delicate and hushed or powerful and gutsy - coupled with Stuart's understated brilliance and their exquisitely crafted songs, that give The Breath such emotional depth.
‘Let The Cards Fall’ is released on 14 Sept 2018 on Real World Records.