“A delicately sung journey through the in-between”: Clara Mann unveils debut album ‘Rift’

Those familiar with London’s Broadside Hacks Folk Club will be no stranger to the voice of Clara Mann. Making regular appearances at tribute shows to musicians long passed, she has certainly made her mark on the world of folk.

Today, after two EPs and a scattering of singles, the Franco-British songwriter has released her debut full-length album, and it is all the comforting melancholy of her previous tracks and more. Rift is a delicately sung journey through the in-between - indeed, travelling imagery is prevalent throughout the record, however this is not a story of unsettlement, but rather hope after pain.

Opening track It Only Hurts admittedly sets a helpless tone, seen not only in the title but in the lyrics. Mann sings of a kind of selfless heartache: “I’m keeping to myself the ugliness of love / so I’m the only one it stings”, followed by an admission, “here I am just waiting on you”. There is a kind of pensiveness in it visible also in ‘Til I Come Around, where the gentle drums create a feeling of thoughtful pacing, coming to a conclusion with ‘your love is a means to an end’. 

As well as featuring as a song on her previous EP Stay Open, confessions seem to be a theme in Rift. This is notable in the first single from the record, Stadiums, where she sings “I write confessions” and appears to share some of them with both the listener and the person she is singing to - “sometimes you call so I never sleep”, mentions of sleeping in their clothes, and again “I’ll put on your old working shirt” in stripped-back third single Remember Me (Train Song), indeed the meditative kind of track that is perfect for listening to whilst staring out of a train window.

Title track Rift features a kind of affirmation, as Mann sings “don’t need lovers, don’t need anyone / just the sun above me and my keys and my car”. Following it is Oranges, bringing a similarly faint warmth with gentle angelic backing vocals contrasting the mentions of thundering skies. 

The Dream ends the record with a feeling of release. Over a soft piano melody, Mann sings of “[erasing] the dream by speaking it aloud”. She shares in an interview with Billie Marten that she recorded the song in almost total darkness, so that she could be alone with it, and if that isn’t the perfect conclusion to this ethereal, reflective album I don’t know what is.  

You can stream/buy Rift and catch Clara Mann on tour around the UK and Europe here.