Full Review

Kim Edgar – Butterflies and Broken Glass

Edinburgh singer/songwriter Kim Edgar won the Burnsong songwriting competition in 2006 (a far sighted project aimed at nurturing songwriters), and with it a place in the Burnsong house, a residential alongside established artists including Karine Polwart, Chris Difford and Emma Pollock. It’s a heady prize for someone just starting out as a singer/songwriter, but Kim has seized the opportunity and put together a striking debut album.

The most obvious result from the Burnsong adventure is having Polwart and her band supporting her across the entire album – Karine provides backing vocals throughout, and her band is ever present. Even with the high profile musicians involved, this is definitely a Kim Edgar album, it feels new, fresh and adventurous; and that’s due to the individuality of her songs and performances, as well as some subtle and sympathetic production from Mattie Foulds.

Kim is a piano based singer/songwriter (although there are some tracks backed by her own acoustic guitar), and the whole album has a confident simplicity about it; the songs are literate, expressively performed, and presented in manner that focuses the listener on the words – whether it’s the distinct voice that has the slightest hint of her Scottish accent or the variety in the songs, there’s something that demands your attention (although in an unassuming, low-key way!).
The songs range from the beautiful, almost traditional simplicity of ‘The Bonnie Lad’ (a true result of Burnsong); the contemporary production and ear-candy melody of ‘Just Outside Your Door; through to the spiky, almost menacing ‘Scissors, Paper, Stone’ which is a strong, well written song with a hard hitting theme.
‘Butterflies and Broken Glass’ is an excellent debut album, even without the assistance of Karine and her band the 10 songs would hold up on their own and mark the arrival of a real talent. As it stands, the quality of the album combined with the involvement of Karine and her band make this a collection that will inevitably find listeners far away from its Scottish roots.