Terms such as “singer” and “songwriter” – or indeed “singer-songwriter” – hardly do justice to Christine Tobin. When you can compose, arrange, pen lyrics, reinvent the songs of others and marshal a group of top-flight musicians with the sort of range and facility that Tobin has, what on earth do you call yourself?
In that respect, the Irish vocalist and composer (that’ll have to do) is best compared to holistic artists such as Kate Bush or Björk, although she doesn’t really sound like either. In a career now spanning four decades, with long stints in London and New York, where she was feted for her unique sound, Tobin has blazed trail after trail, whether composing her own songs, setting poets Yeats and Muldoon to music, or rearranging Leonard Cohen and Carole King.
[ Christine Tobin – Pelt album review: sprawling and enthrallingOpens in new window ]
Returning Weather is Tobin’s mediation on her reconnection with Ireland after so long abroad, specifically the Roscommon landscape where she now lives, and its suite of nine songs, blending trad, folk, art song and jazz, unfolds like a narrative poem.
To tell her story of identity and belonging, Tobin has assembled a talented cast of fellow adventurers, including avant-garde violinist Cora Venus Lunny, traditional piper David Power, UK jazz pianist Steve Hamilton and her long-standing collaborator and partner, renowned London guitarist Phil Robson.
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The results are starkly beautiful, veering from abstraction to romanticism to folky minimalism, and Tobin’s voice, filled with humanity and warmth, draws it all together perfectly.
