Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease
Critic Score
Based on 16 reviews
2020 Ratings: #37 / 871
User Score
Based on 64 ratings
Liked by 1 person
July 24, 2020 / Release Date
LP / Format
Domino / Label
Folk / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Observer
The veteran singer’s comeback really takes wing with this impeccably judged set.
90
musicOMH
Collins is a musical key worker, her songs compelling at every turn.
90
PopMatters

Deftly indisputable on Heart's Ease, Collins' music acts as a cultural time capsule to preserve legacies.

90
Loud and Quiet

It isn’t hyperbole to point out that what we’re dealing with on Heart’s Ease is something that reaches into the distant past of the rural labouring class. But that isn’t why it’s good; no, it’s the sheer enduring potency of the material, the magnificent austerity of the delivery and arrangements.

90
Uncut

Heart's Ease finds Collins' voice rejuvenated, and her confidence restored.

80
AllMusic

Heart's Ease goes further, revealing she's still a vital performer and an artist willing to explore new and unfamiliar territory, suggesting a more interesting future than listeners might have imagined.

80
Clash
A transformative folk experience that carries a glimpse of the uncanny.
80
The Guardian

Heart’s Ease is a wild flower that self-seeds and grows tall alone. The cadences of the phrase also suit Shirley Collins in the present, and there is confident calmness in her ninth solo album in 61 years.

80
Mojo
Next to well-known traditionals like Barbara Allen and Canadee-i-o, the unheard compositions shine bright.
80
Spectrum Culture
Don’t call it a comeback; at 85, Shirley Collins is releasing the best music of her career.
80
The Arts Desk

After comeback album ‘Lodestar’, English folk’s prime voice is composed and contemplative.

80
Record Collector

Heart’s Ease is ample evidence that Shirley Collins still has the ambition, passion and guts to not only document where folk has come from but where it’s going.

80
Q Magazine
Superb late-flowering album from folk heroine.
78
Beats Per Minute
Collins’ devotion to the folk tradition is as strong as ever. She continues to bring new life to the musical artefact that is the folk song, and the fact that she brings so many years of her own to these interpretations makes them feel all the more authentic.
76
Pitchfork

Heart’s Ease is beautifully rendered, presenting Collins’ voice in reverent focus amid acoustic guitars, mandolin, and the occasional fiddle.

jeetygt
NR

I honestly don't even care that this sounds like bops the Pilgrims would have heard on the Mayflower. It's cozy and beautiful, and I've succumbed to it like medicine. (On a more serious note, I have an immense respect for music that's humble and doesn't care to be ostentatious, but nothing I've heard recently hits that high like THIS.)

SwagMaster73
NR

betty white

jkpyg
40

This is exactly my kind of music but this is borderline unlistenable

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Track List

  1. The Merry Golden Tree
  2. Rolling in the Dew
  3. The Christmas Song
  4. Locked in Ice
  5. Wondrous Love
  6. Barbara Allen
  7. Canadee - I - O
  8. Sweet Greens and Blues
  9. Tell Me True
  10. Whitsun Dance
  11. Orange in Bloom
  12. Crowlink
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Added on: May 28, 2020