Kathryn Williams: Hypoxia | Album Review

Interesting this – one of the UK's primary folk-pop songwriters records a concept album inspired by Sylvia Plath's only published novel, The Bell Jar.

Plath’s work and life has impacted on songwriters for many years – from Ralph McTell to Of Montreal, from Belle & Sebastian to Ryan Adams – but there are very few who, like Williams, seem to have come to some greater understanding of the novel other than it being a handy cipher for ennui-infected teenage girls.

Hypoxia (the medical term for lack of oxygen supply to the body, and perhaps a reference to Plath's suicide) reflects the novel's muscular writing style; songs such as Mirrors, Beating Heart, Cuckoo, and The Mind has its own Place draw on scenes and storylines from the book, and Williams's combination of melancholy and melody is bang on.

kathrynwilliams.co.uk