Joan Shelley - Like the River Loves the Sea review

The Guardian 80

(No Quarter)
Shelley’s fifth album was recorded in Iceland and her music seems more timeless, steely, sad and resolute than ever

Over the course of four albums, Louisville, Kentucky singer-songwriter Joan Shelley has built up a considerable reputation as a purveyor of fine, heartfelt folk and country. Her fifth is a magnificent addition to the canon. Recorded in Iceland with regular collaborators Nathan Salsburg and James Elkington alongside Icelandic musicians (and Will Oldham on Coming Down for You and The Fading), the 12 songs chart the course of a relationship like the changing seasons. There’s a hint of classic Joni Mitchell to the 34-year-old’s simultaneously pure and world-weathered tones. Recorded close to the microphone, with banjos, guitar, piano, drums and occasional strings never overpowering the beautiful vocals, she sounds personal and intimate. “I’m coming down for you as you always knew I would,” she sings. “All your tender parts exposed.” At times, her poetic imagery is dazzling: the superb Teal sees “the fresh air and wind and waves” get set to “tear apart summer’s stuffy and stale rooms”.