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CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA
Ma Fleur
Ninja Tune
**

While previous albums from the Jason Swinscoe-helmed Cinematic Orchestra were all soaring, soulful affairs, Ma Fleur is moody, downbeat and troubled. It's love and loss that dominate Swinscoe's songwriting on this (oh, yes) soundtrack for an imaginary film, each song more turned in on itself than the last. It's his cast of vocal greats (Fontella Bass, Lou Rhodes and Patrick Watson all take turns at the mic) who colour the album's mood, with Watson's Jeff Buckley- like timbre in particular setting an album-wide tone. As Child Song and As the Stars Fall show, Swinscoe can still turn instrumental soul into moody showstoppers. Yet there are times when the ceaseless flow of introspection becomes a mite tedious and you yearn for Swinscoe to take the album to higher ground. That, unfortunately, never happens. www.cinematicorchestra.com

Download tracks: As the Stars Fall, Music Box