Feast - Eliza Delf and the Wilderness

I've seen Eliza Delf and the Wilderness perform several times and while the lead singer was always the focus of attention, the Wilderness component seemed to fluctuate, as did the sound they produced. I got the sense the ensemble was experimenting with what sort of band they wanted to be - what sort of band, for that matter, suited Eliza Delf's distinctive vocal style. It seems to me, therefore, that Feast is as much a statement of intent as it is a collection of songs. Unusually positioning itself as a semi-acoustic, stripped back operation (notwithstanding the key inclusion of Eva Wright's cello) the album states unapologetically that this is who we are now and how we now sound.

Upon first hearing it live, the urgent, emphatic Look at Me immediately struck me as a stand out song from the set, so opening the album with it is a bold move. How are they going to follow that, is the question begged. I have long since projected my own meaning to its repeated, unnerving refrain, and I'm not about to let a lyric sheet undermine my idea of what it's about. Like so many of Delf's music, the specifics remain opaque while the repetition suggests a frankly unnerving emotional intensity. Uncanny and Merry Go Round that follow suggest mental conflict without spelling out their meaning. There's little doubt they mean something to Delf - the haunting ambiguity of John Foxx's solo work springs to mind - and possibly something quite personal and private. Why else the unnerving admission that "I'm not getting better, mum".

It almost goes without saying that the lyrical content of the album's songs is galvanised by Delf's vocals. Her range in Uncanny is extraordinary, to the point that it is almost distracting, but I was just as impressed by the restraint shown in The Trick. Combined with Tim Skinner's subtle percussion and Jacob Browne's acoustic guitar, it's a welcome change of tempo after all that sound and fury. Twine then lifts both the tempo and spirits, and though Delf can't resist slipping in the disquieting "I like you too much" this is a song that shows the band can do joyful if they want to. Not that they want to very often, as Common Law drags us back to earth, "among the worms" where a "man of dirt" is given a verbal going over, Delf's soulful delivery suggesting her words have sprung from more than her imagination.

Just how much of this is autobiographical is a recurrent thought throughout the listening experience - I do hope she's simply making some of this up - but the intensity of Don't Love Me Lightly feels too authentic to not have the seed corn of truth about it. Her technique of repetition (oddly reminiscent of the lyrically underrated Scouting For Girls) combined with rare but beautifully rendered harmonies, add extra heft to this substantial contribution to the album.

The fragility of Delf's voice in Barefoot in the Ashes shows she doesn't need her range to be effective. Combined with Eva Wright's cello, here brought to the fore, the song builds to a climax that only initial understatement allows. Sweet Somethings goes some way to strengthening my admittedly contentious opinion that Delf's vocals are as close to the Hoosiers' Irwin Sparkes as they are to the (far too obvious) comparison with Kate Bush, leaving the uncharacteristically rollocking Threshold to close the album in fine style.

Speaking of closing, I did a double take when I realised the album was over, and yet I had still not heard the title track. I had missed nothing, as there is no tune called Feast, which to my mind lends greater weight to the choice of album title. My thinking is that here is a collection of songs to feast on, a taster menu of all that Eliza and her pals offer. There's certainly an emotional through line, albeit one artfully window dressed in poignant lyricism, of love and longing and loss. Musically, variety is the order of the day, giving the collection a consistently surprising and pleasingly eccentric personality. I do wonder whether we are one album away from a more settled musical direction, but there's no denying that the intensity and imagination of this selection of songs gives the listener much to feast on.