A HAIL OF BITTER ALMONDS

I was rather taken by Corde Oblique's previous album, The Stones of Naples, but on A Hail of Bitter Almonds I found the charms of their interesting folk-classical fusion beginning to wear thin. It's all very pretty, with a suitably talented set of vocalists summoned, but far from the bitterness promised by the album title there's a syrupy sweetness to everything that becomes increasingly cloying as the album progresses. There's an odd take on Radiohead's Jigsaw Working Into Place which shows imagination, but otherwise I found much of this album to be forgettable, though forgettable in a rather pretty way. Smooth, and perhaps a little too smooth.