I often turn to the radio to find new music. I can listen passively while I drive and record the tracks that I enjoy. While listening to CBC Radio 2’s The Signal, Laurie Brown revealed “Lo” by Lisa Hannigan to me, which set me on the trail for the rest of her album, At Swim. It turns out that this is the kind of music you listen to when you’re sitting in the early morning and all the house and everything outside is still quiet, or for sitting on your porch and staring into the pouring rain of a fresh storm, or maybe to put on in the background while you sit in bed in your dimly lit room and read yourself to sleep.
There’s a touch of Hannigan’s Irish roots in her music, but nothing that is a dead giveaway. I can’t quite put my finger on anything that leads me to say it sounds like it has Irish roots, but if you give the album a listen, you’ll note the way she plays the guitar and the persistent drum beats she employs are reminiscent of the folk dance songs that I understand are related with Irish culture. Lisa Hannigan sounds a lot like First Aid Kit in terms of style, but her voice sounds a lot more like Bjork or maybe even Joanna Newsom. However, Rhye is definitely the most similar artist to Hannigan in general.
With a history of working with Damien Rice and having had this album produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, Hannigan draws on a well-earned well of experience in the alternative genre. At Swim is easy to listen to, melancholy in general but filled with a sort of fleeting beauty as demonstrated in “Anahorish.”
