The Singles Jukebox

Only one snark on the name?

[Video][Website]
[5.50]

Iain Mew: Knowing the back story to Emma-Lee Moss’ second album Virtue, that it was written in the aftermath of a breakup triggered by her fiancé finding God, lends a certain extra bite to a chorus revolving around blessings and rapture. I’m confident that I would unconditionally love “Paper Forest” regardless though. It’s the finest example yet of her vivid lyrical intertwining of the fantastical and the mundane, of making a song that’s sparse but makes every moment count. Here her words and sense of rueful deflation ring very true in capturing something which is both personal and resonates with wider current culture, of what happens when you spend so long believing something to be true, documenting and analysing and reaffirming it, that you can’t find your way back to actually living in and feeling the moment as it happens.
[10]

Mallory O’Donnell: I have no formal complaints to lodge regarding masturbation, be it musical, lyrical or actual. However, this particular example of the first two varieties provides more static cling than friction, consisting as it does of the same weak metaphor rephrased with minor variations over a twee folk arrangement so stale you can practically taste the chamomile.
[2]

Brad Shoup: Words, words, words. To be smart enough to see the after but not enough to know it’s avoidable. The sour brass and Sufjan-style humming are just as mannered as the lyrical unraveling, but I’m only tired of the latter.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: The exact midpoint between early Laura Marling and Heathers: vocals, guitars and piano tripping along conversationally and a slightly mannered concept. These are all compliments, and considering both Marling and the Macnamaras were young with debut albums at the time of comparison, Emmy can only have greater things ahead.
[7]

Anthony Easton: I don’t know if this is charming and ingratiating, genuine in her worry, or annoying as fuck indie blather. It might because the weather is turning, and the song does sound a bit like melancholy autumn soundtrack. 
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: How about Emmy the Not Bad?
[5]