Ma Polaine

This Summer, Somerset based duo Ma Polaine’s Great Decline released their third album City of Love. Although they have been described variously over the years – with references to Billie Holiday, Tom Waits and a “moody Mary Margaret O’Hara” – Ma Polaine’s sound is very much their own. MOJO magazine said they “have evolved a pop-folk-blues-americana style that is warmly familiar, yet is sufficiently unhinged to keep you guessing”. Beth’s effortlessly distinctive vocals and evocative lyrics, coupled with Clinton’s understated guitar, underpin each and every song and on City of Love, we hear the character of Ma Polaine explored more deeply than ever before. Recorded at the duo’s home studio, the album took a great deal of patience and experimentation to complete to their satisfaction. Self-engineering the album turned out to be an exhilarating and, at times, frustrating process with some songs taking up to five versions to get right. The result was worth it; the Ma Polaine aesthetic burns brightly on City of Love’s eleven original tracks, which are every bit as compelling as you’d expect them to be.