Just after putting up the link to the video I got an email from Amazon kindly letting me know that they’d dispatched a copy of the album to me and, sure enough, on Saturday morning it slipped through my letter box.
To say I was looking forward to listening to it is something of an understatement. When Polly announced a few years ago that she was going to stop touring, I took it to mean that there wouldn’t be any new material either. White Chalk put that worry aside to some extent, but it still had the feel of a “last album” - it was quite a change from previous ones, so much softer and, while still wonderfully dark, it was a lot more gentle than either the anthemic Stories From the City… or the almost abrasive songs from To Bring you My Love or Dry.
A second collaboration with John Parish still doesn’t leave me feeling relieved that there will be years of music still to come, but it’s at least a temporary fix and it’s a damn good one, if a little mixed-up. Pitchfork’s review is typically unenthusiastic, but does a decent job in attempting to describe some of the music. Meanwhile, the pair have been allowed to “take over” the Guardian music website where there are interviews, pictures and a song to download.
