Before she recorded
Ballad of the Broken Seas with
Mark Lanegan,
Isobel Campbell recorded the breathtakingly beautiful
Milk White Sheets. Instead of the showy country balladry she and
Lanegan laid down, here
Campbell delves deep into the sounds of 1960s British folk. In the liner notes she comes right out and says that
Milk White Sheets was inspired by the music of female folk giants
Shirley Collins,
Jean Ritchie, and
Anne Briggs. It's no stretch to say that
Campbell has created an album that stands shoulder to shoulder with anything her idols released. Everything about
Milk White Sheets is enchanting and lovely. The arrangements are intimate and small; mainly built around acoustic guitars and
Campbell's voice but made lively with the addition of cellos, glockenspiel, percussion, and on the instrumental "James," string arrangements that call to mind
Robert Kirby's wonderful work with
Nick Drake. The songs
Campbell picks to cover are always interesting choices, and her own compositions are sublime. As an indication of just how authentic her songs sound, it's difficult to tell the songs she composed from the traditional folk songs like "Reynardine" and "Loving Hannah" that she covers. Best of all is
Campbell's voice. While she's a fine pop singer and a lovely country crooner, her tender and seductive vocals are a revelation. Whether breathily cooing through the sweet "Cachel Wood" or yipping through "Yearning," she has never sounded this good before. It truly sounds like she was born to sing this autumnal and very British kind of folk. Hopefully her fans will stick with her on this fascinating detour, and hopefully she herself will keep releasing records this intimate, beautiful, and melancholy.