Gregory and the Hawk

Gregory and the Hawk’s new album does not invite easy comparison, yet there is something eerily familiar about it. Meredith Godreau’s brand of subversively pretty indie-pop comes with the typical backstory of a series of college drop-outs and then a friend’s couch, but the resulting sensation is expertly graceful and lethally seductive.

The mysterious moniker of native New Yorker, Meredith Godreau, the name Gregory and the Hawk was initially devised to avoid being pigeonholed as a female singer-songwriter. From listening to Leche Godreau has clearly travelled a great distance from her home-studio beginnings and despite citing PJ Harvey and Liz Phair amongst her influences, this album is far from the madding crowd of twee female pop-come-experimental folk.

With its disarming melodies, baroque string textures and delicately honeyed vocals, highlights include Landscapes and the excellent, relatively upbeat Soulgazing. Although one-dimensional at times, Leche is a hypnotic and authentic album and certainly one to see you through those cold winter nights by the fire. www.gregoryandthehawk.com

Bethany Rex