Bella Hardy: Songs Lost & Stolen

Bella Hardy

Songs Lost & Stolen

(Navigator)

The third album from the Derbyshire singer Bella Hardy is marvellously assured. “Labyrinth” begins with a deceptively simple strummed folk guitar melody; as its words turn to loss of both direction and love, added drums and violin build into a disorienting rush. “Flowers of May”, newly written, sounds like a melody centuries old. Elsewhere, influences run from fiddle stomp to Angela Carter.