Album review: Woman’s Hours

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The stark monochrome cover offers a clue as to what lies within. The debut album from Cumbria’s Woman’s Hour is a record of cool hues and low-burning emotion — a sad-eyed, occasionally somnolent mix of The xx, Belle and Sebastian and Berlin depressives Lali Puna.

The band’s great strength is singer Fiona Burgess. Her voice elevates what might otherwise be workmanlike compositions into songs of tremendous bathos and spiritual punch. A trained actress, she imbues her performance with convincing heartache and starry-eyedness.