Isobel Campbell - Bow to Love / limited edition 2CD

An inquisitive, complex and fully matured album from an artist who has travelled long and far. Campbell was first noticed as a teenage founder member of Belle & Sebastian, before she released two dream-folk solo albums under the name The Gentle Waves and left B&S in 2002. Two records under her own name followed, leading to a union with late rock-carved growler Mark Lanegan for three albums of gravel’n’honey Americana duets, where Lanegan would stand aside while Campbell called the creative shots.

A move to LA and a near-decade of label troubles followed; the latter ended with There Is No Other in 2020 before – as Campbell puts it – “the world went down the crapper” for the pandemic. And on Bow to Love, suggests Campbell, the world’s ongoing troubles are clear. “Anyone with two eyes, a brain and a heart can see that people are struggling, and I suppose I have a lot of thoughts about that. And it’s this album.”

An album that also, says Campbell, has thoughts about how the future remains unwritten. “I feel like we’re living in some kind of dystopia, but I think it’s up to us what we buy into and what we react to. We do have a choice, even if sometimes we think we don’t. You can still see acts of great kindness. In all the bleakness, that’s what I hang on to. We are co-creators. Where we go next is up to us.” Mounted with clear-sighted artistry and care, Bow to Love is a light in the dark of uncertain times.

CD1
1. Everything Falls Apart
2. Do Or Die
3. Spider To The Fly
4. Second Guessing
5. Bow To Love
6. 4316
7. Dopamine
8. Keep Calm, Carry On
9. Saturday's Son
10. Take This Poison
11. Om Shanti Om
12. You
13. Why Worry

CD2 - Place à l'Amour
1. Tout s'écroule et se meurt
2. Maintenant ou jamais
3. ⁠Araignée du soir
4. ⁠Je me demande juste
5. ⁠Place à l'Amour
6. ⁠4316
7. Dopamine
8. ⁠Reste calme, suis ta voie
9. ⁠Le fils du laboureur
10. ⁠Prends ce poison
11. ⁠Om Shanti Om
12. ⁠Toi
13. T'en fais pas