Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell is still probably best known for her association with "Twee Pop" band Belle and Sebastian, for who she provided vocals and played the cello. In recent years her solo career has come to the fore, along with several collaborations, most notably with Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stoneage vocalist Mark Lanegan.

It was this pairing on 2006's Ballad of the Broken Seas that brought I.C. to my attention. The mix of her sweet, floating vocal with the full-tar growl of Lanegan is irresistible in my book. I must have listened to that album a couple of dozen times at home and at work and never tired of it.

Recently, having been reminded of their existence through their two tunes on the Juno soundtrack, I downloaded the Belle and Sebastian discography and refreshed my relationship with them a little. I like them a lot, despite the criticisms of them being fey and lightweight and even pretentious (all true but still good). But I kept coming back to the female voice and wanted to find out more about this wee lady.

Some investigative hours and the garnering of no less than four solo albums (including two as The Gentle Waves) later and I am a little bit in love with her!

For a start, I had no idea how pretty she was, which naturally helps, but it is her talent and guile as a musician that really clinched it. Her sense for a tune is rarely less than enticing; a pop sensibility right up there with the likes of Beautiful South's Paul Heaton definitely exists and I'm surprised there haven't been more "hits". Perhaps her folksy, Celtic influences are not exactly the vogue...

Harpsichords, cellos, violins, piccolos and many more less heard instruments all help to weave some wonderful and generally relaxing soundscapes, all finished with the lilting tones of the Scots lassy, who will be 32 next week. There is a ribbon of magic here - something like fairy-dust, another-worldly flavour with a sub-current of something sinister, exemplified by her cover of Willow's Song from the film The Wicker Man. No doubt, were she born a hundred years ago, she would have been burned as a witch!

There is a note of Americana and a more Country and Western feel to her latest offerings, however (see the newly released follow-up to Ballad of the Broken Seas, Sunday at Devil Dirt), almost certainly due to Lanegan's influence. Not that I'm saying that is a bad thing, but not sure I respond to that as easily. For sure, though, I will be keeping an eye on her work for many a year.