Deftly indisputable on Heart's Ease, Collins' music acts as a cultural time capsule to preserve legacies.
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.
Heart's Ease finds Collins' voice rejuvenated, and her confidence restored.
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.
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.
After comeback album ‘Lodestar’, English folk’s prime voice is composed and contemplative.
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.
Heart’s Ease is beautifully rendered, presenting Collins’ voice in reverent focus amid acoustic guitars, mandolin, and the occasional fiddle.
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.)
#9 | / | Uncut |
#11 | / | musicOMH |
#21 | / | Norman Records |
#28 | / | MOJO |
#33 | / | The Quietus |
#40 | / | Loud and Quiet |
/ | AllMusic |