PIAS Schallplatten & CDs

Review: By following in the footsteps of the mighty Giles Martin, who remastered The Beatles' Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios, Martha Wainwright has achieved a spine-tinglingly great sound in the fabled North London institution on this 20th anniversary remaster. The mixes are so strong that it leaves you free to listen to the majesty of the arrangements and undeniable beauty of her voice, without any pangs that you can get from bad sound design. There are some songwriters who will live on long after they're gone and this Montrealer is clearly one of them. 'Far Away' has gorgeous melodies plump in the song like a pineapple tree ripe for picking. 'Don't Forget' has a bit of a Laura Marling feel and it feels like it pays homage to bluegrass traditions where people would sit around a camp fire and intimately tell their most important life stories, whilst comfortably deflecting from any sadness with an uplifting musical passage. And if anyone was to hum their life story to us, few come higher up the bucket list than Martha Wainwright.