Brooke Sharkey Wandering Heart

‘Wandering Heart’ is the second album from East London-based singer-songwriter Brooke Sharkey, an artist whose talent and distinctive style has long been worthy of huge recognition. What places her on a higher plane than most of her contemporaries in the genre is actually pretty simple: the sheer strength of her songwriting, and the truly soul-shifting quality of her voice.

The slow, stripped ‘Your Tomorrow’ allows that remarkable voice the space to be front and centre, tethered to a cool, slow double bass. Sharkey’s lyrics alternate between French and English, sometimes in the same song, but the melodies and melancholy moments carry with them a universally understood, intensely moving quality; the wordless vocal refrain at the climax of ‘Faces’ is one such moment. There are glimmers of brass here and there amongst these songs, adding burnish or a lightly jazzy feel at well-chosen moments, while the semi-epic, intensely poignant title track is an affecting emotional journey all of its own.

This is mature, refined songwriting of the highest calibre.