Psychoanalysts would have a field day interpreting the title of Tracey Thorn’s first solo album in a quarter of a century. Suffice to say a conventional reading would have the “Woods” representing the leafy North London locale she spent the first five years of the new millennium concentrating on bringing up babies with hubby, and other half of Everything From The Girl, Ben Watt. Five years in which perhaps the finest female vocalist of her generation didn’t even warble a single note.

By her own admission, Thorn could sing the Teletubbies theme tune and make it sound the very antithesis of an ode to joy. One of her more poetic acolytes Gustav puts it rather differently, describing her songs as being “like a secret date with a white nightingale.” Afsheen, give this man a job.

The complete non-involvement of Watt in this project comes as some surprise. Thorn has gone on record to explain his absence: “I wanted to go at my own pace. And it was slow. Ben wouldn’t have been happy.”

That’s not to say it’s a totally “solo” solo project. Thorn has roped in the services of a number of collaborators. The most prominent being Ewan Pearson, one of dance music’s most highly-prized producers thanks largely to his work with The Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp, and The Rapture amongst many others.

Music lovers will have a field day embracing Out of the Woods. An album for all seasons, it combines the bleakness of winter, bright optimism of spring, lazy, hazy days of summer, and warm glow of autumn. Whilst tracks such as ‘Grand Canyon’ and ‘Raise The Roof’ look destined for a dancefloor future, the likes of ‘A-Z’ suggest something best listened to on your stereo at home. Or as Thorn herself elaborates, it’s a record chock-full of “bedsit disco torch songs”.
(4/5)