Hannigan, Lisa: At Swim (Vinyl LP)

Lisa Hannigan first came to light as an angel-voiced, somewhat mysterious figure singing harmonies alongside Damien Rice. They recorded and toured together for seven years, but it wasn't until the release of her solo debut Sea Sew in 2008 that the full spectrum of her abilities became apparent. A joyous kaleidoscope of love songs, laments, sea shanties and glockenspiels, with a cover hand-stitched by Lisa herself, the self-released album was a runaway success, nominated for a Choice award in Ireland and a Mercury Music Prize in the UK. The ecstatic reception gave her the confidence to explore deeper, darker emotions.

Passenger, which came out in 2011, centred around the pain of leaving and the sense of apartness consequent to a life spent in constant motion. If Sea Sew bobs beautifully on the surface, you could say that Passenger explores the undercurrents of passion and heartache beneath the waves.

Lisa's third studio album At Swim is arguably her most bewitching collection yet. Having struggled with writers block after over two years of touring, the breakthrough came when she got an email out of the blue from Aaron Dessner, guitarist with The National and producer of the bestselling Dark Was the Night, who has also produced recent albums for This Is the Kit, Frightened Rabbit, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. "He'd seen a clip of me singing and he wrote to say, “Hey, if you ever want to do something together...” And of course I wrote back straight away: “Yes!” So he started sending me these pieces of music, and I'd put them on and record myself humming along into my phone, and suddenly all of these songs started appearing."

Lisa has since recorded, released and toured with two live albums, one with Belgian outfit, The Colourist, and the other with a European global collective Stargaze. Outside of releasing her own albums, Lisa has stretched her musical expertise in many directions: collaborating with artists as diverse as Ray LaMontagne, Richard Hawley, Ritual, Herbie Hancock and Glen Hansard.

Lisa Hannigan made her film debut, providing the voice for a Selkie – that is to say, a mermaid – in the Oscar-nominated Irish animation Song Of The Sea. Anyone who knows her music will recognise this as an inspired bit of casting. The sea recurs constantly as an image in her work, a great unknowable that can drown us or can bring us together, as a songwriter, she has the mermaid-like ability to go to places where, strictly speaking, we shouldn't be able to go. She also featured as the character Blue Diamond in the American animated series, Steven Universe.

Since then, on top of her acting duties, she's contributed a haunting cover of "Danny Boy" to the TV series Fargo, as well as vocals for Steve Price's scores for Gravity (which won an Oscar) and Fury. Her most recent TV contribution has been a haunting cover of Britney Spears' 'Toxic' which featured in the last series of Fargo.

1. Fall
2. Prayer For The Dying
   
3. Snow
   
4. Lo
   
5. Undertow
   
6. Ora
   
7. We, The Drowned
   
8. Anahorish
   
9. Tender
   
10. Funeral Suit
    
11. Barton