On her first album in nearly a decade, Emma Pollock reminds us why her voice is one of the most affecting in rock. Begging the Night to Take Hold, her new record, is a nimble sprint between styles, with Emma's warm vocals anchoring mid-tempo rambles and stark ballads with equal power.
"Prize Hunter" is quietly spry, while the insistent "Future Tree" finds Emma's Dusty Springfield-ish instrument a bit forward in the mix. The song is brightly affecting, with a keyboard-based hook that is damn irrestible. There's an energy here that builds and builds until the song heads out for the sun on the back of a big bridge. And while there are many tracks that have a playful sort of force, even the ballads here like "Marchtown" blend folk elements with chamber pop -- cello from Pete Harvey of Modern Studies -- in such a way that even a simple melody like the one here is really bracing. Similarly, "Something of a Summer" achieves much thanks to Pollock's easy way with the vocals and piano from Graeme Smillie. This one is lovely until a nearly baroque coda sends it higher.
With production and drums by Paul Savage, Emma's bandmate in The Delgados, the tracks on Begging the Night to Take Hold have the depth and variety of the stuff from their old band, as well as the stark beauty of Pollock's own solo efforts after. What makes this record work so well is that combination of the varied instrumental approach of The Delgados and Emma's deft ability to sing with both warmth and vulnerability. It's a mix of elements which places this somewhere outside indie as we usually think of it. And that's what gives this a sort of magic.
Emma Pollock still seems like most criminally underrated vocalist of the last quarter-century. I might have felt like that when she was in The Delgados, but at least there was a genuine buzz about the band in those days, and the late John Peel championed them mightily. Now, in 2025, I feel like reviewers like myself should be shouting loudly from our online mountaintops about just how special this material is, and what a wonderfully smart and intuitive peformer Emma Pollock remains. Begging the Night to Take Hold is very highly recommended.
Begging The Night To Take Hold by Emma Pollock is out this Friday via Chemikal Underground. Details below too.
[Photo: Chemikal Underground]