If I mention Irish music, which artists do you immediately think of? The turgid monotonous stadium rock of U2? The overhyped, sickly to the point of being vomit inducing The Script? Whilst there will be those who will recall the magnificent pop of The Corrs, or even the ever-sprittly Van Morrison, most will automatically opt for the latter two. Well think again. Underneath the dull as potatoes, almost comically consistently churned out rubbish, there is a beautiful and enchanting songstress hiding.

Having lurked in the musical darkness in-between her critically acclaimed second album We’re Smiling and her newest release Flo, Ann Scott has been building up a brooding and rapturous repertoire of songs. Dark and poetic imagery intertwine, allowing a haunting and dreamlike mood to be composed. Almost strictly limited to a gently strummed guitar, an at times chunky but resonating bass and a flourishing mystical piano, this album showcases Scott at her utmost emotionally vulnerable.

Scott herself described the album as about “being lost and how to get there”, and I am struggling to comprehend words which could more eloquently and delightfully summarise these songs. Return To Die is very much indebted to PJ Harvey, both vocally and instrumentally, however Scott allows herself enough scope to breathe her own musical life into each and every composition. Should her music ever receive widespread popular acclaim, there will undoubtably be those who write Scott off as an inferior Laura Marling, however, after several listens to Flo there is a deep emotional connection and reverberating understanding between Scott and her songs which Marling has struggled to consistently grasp.

There is an admirable subtle and distant feeling, the likes of which features predominately in the music of Nick Drake, which is by no means a trait I would attach to many singers. In an auto-tuned age when it seems so worthlessly easy to be a inventive songwriter and a profound singer, Scott has managed to not only push musical boundaries in her composition and sound, but also form a mutual level of agreement and trust between the various instruments used to perform such fantastic eulogies.

Check Out Her Myspace

Check Out Her Official Site