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MagnetDec 18, 2013Though Calvi hardly ever breaks from her aesthetic on One Breath, she owns it so well that you'd be hard-pressed to complain. [No. 105, p.53]
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Under The RadarDec 4, 2013[One Breath will not] take Anna Calvi out of the well-respected comfort zone that she currently inhabits. It is a striking and hypnotic record, laced with tension and talent, and bristling with a wide range of ideas. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.94]
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Nov 20, 2013Calvi’s synthesized enough musical styles for at least three artists, and she’s clearly got ample chops to pull any of them off. She’s born to make a grand concept album one day. What she needs now is that grand concept.
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Oct 17, 2013The album is as focused as its predecessor (both are 45 minutes), but it is emotionally more expansive.
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Oct 17, 2013[Not only is] One Breath a consistently captivating listen, but Anna Calvi a compelling artist.
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Oct 14, 2013Each song is coloured with a knowing intelligence and it all comes from her voice.
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MojoOct 11, 2013Minor caveats notwithstanding, at its best One Breath is, indeed, breathtaking, and an undeniable upgrade on its much-vaunted predecessor. [Nov 2013, p.87]
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Q MagazineOct 11, 2013Beautiful and candid, One Breath proves Anna Calvi has her frailties. They just happen to be as captivating as her strengths. [Nov 2013, p.106]
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Oct 10, 2013One Breath is a dynamic statement from a young woman who could very well be the next David Bowie or Nick Cave.
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UncutOct 8, 2013One Breath is a boldly cinematic work that is filled with passion and drama. [Nov 2013, p.67]
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Oct 8, 2013It’s hard to say what is more ferocious on Anna Calvi’s new album: her voice, her guitar, or the interplay between the two of them. Together they launch a formidable assault on One Breath.
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Oct 7, 2013One Breath lacks the overwhelming force of her earlier material, but given time it will surely burrow under your skin.
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Oct 7, 2013One Breath draws on choppy emotions--grief, depression, anxiety--but Calvi commands the tides with the imperious authority of Barbara Stanwyck leading her posse in Sam Fuller's wild western Forty Guns.
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Oct 7, 2013There’s new confidence here, and a sense that she’s stretching herself musically and lyrically.
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Oct 7, 2013Calvi's less adventurous fans may find themselves at a loss as to how to process it all, but there's something both immaculate and broken about One Breath that ultimately transcends its more difficult moments.
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Oct 4, 2013Calvi is unquestionably a great performer, but on One Breath, her work reaches a level of nuance that the majority of contemporary music lacks.
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Oct 4, 2013On her second album, Anna Calvi has lost much of the distinctive guitar work that helped make her debut so intriguing, but gained a deeper breadth of texture and structure to carry her emotional excursions.
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Oct 4, 2013It’s haughtier, humbler, more powerful, more delicate; it’s like Anna Calvi was dipping a toe in the sea, and now that she knows that the world rather quite approves of her, she’s ripped the ripcord and is delivering the beast within.
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Oct 4, 2013One Breath may not be a masterpiece but it does enough to suggest she has a chance of making one someday.
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Oct 3, 2013One Breath is truly cathartic, but it will leave you a quivering wreck.
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Oct 3, 2013One Breath is a beautiful, atmospheric triumph.
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Oct 3, 2013A far darker piece than her debut album, this is a downbeat yet profoundly affecting second act.
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Oct 3, 2013One Breath benefits from its variety and from a taste for experimentation which, striking subtle chords that invite the listener to stay and revisit.
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Oct 3, 2013While the dynamics may be a little different, her wonderfully expressive, kaleidoscopic guitar playing and that voice, capable of alternating within the space of a few notes from a barely audible whisper to a wailing banshee, both remain as compelling as ever.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 22 out of 28
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Mixed: 5 out of 28
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Negative: 1 out of 28
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Nov 24, 2020
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Oct 18, 2014
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Jan 26, 2014