It must be over two years ago when I caught a Fretwell live performance in Liverpool or Manchester. He was second support to I can’t remember who, but I liked the performance, and remember having to hurriedly extricate my camera from a zipped bag to take a few pictures. He then disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived, and has now reappeared with a large label contract and a pretty fair new album.

I also remember seeing James Blunt perform many months ago (as second support to Damien Dempsey), when chart success was a dim and distant dream. Amazing isn’t it what a pretty ordinary but catchy tune can do for a pretty ordinary artist… Both live and on record Fretwell is a much more interesting singer/songwriter. And opening track Do You Want To Come With? proves the point. A few simple piano chords (sounding like practice notes) introduces a slow, contemplative, easy voice. Fretwell moves along with such care and expression that one is forced to listen, but not to catchy melodies or singalong choruses. Instead one is struck by the sincerity of the performance and a set of heartbreaking lyrics. It’s a great start to an excellent album.

Even the longish pauses between tracks have meaning, pause for thought. What’s That You Say Little Girl seems to be father talking to child; a simple and beautiful song backed by matching simple guitar chords. There’s melody aplenty here but rather than dominating the songs, they draw attention to the lyrics and performance. There are moments where influences become apparent, such as in the charming Rose when the opening guitar chords remind me of one the Beatles better, acoustic tracks. The song also boasts a wonderful backing vocal from Isobel Heyworth and ends up being one of the most original and beautiful on the album. Ryan Adams and Bob Dylan cast the most attractive shadows on songs like the country-tinged Lost Without You and Play.

MAGPIE is an album that gets better with each listen, and while it doesn’t contain that instant fame-making single, it contains much, much more with every one of the fourteen songs hitting the musical and emotional mark. The stripped-down instrumentals and production are also masterful and help make this album the best from a UK singer/songwriter in 2005 – by a country mile!

5/5