After parcelling out new recorded material agonisingly slowly over a period of nearly three years, Leeds singer-songwriter Fran Rodgers now finally comes at us with her debut single, a song straight out of leftfield which should knock the socks off even long-term aficionados of her sound. ‘I Fell To You Under Winter Sun’ exhibits all of the qualities which has made Rodgers so beloved of the alt-folk set in her home town: delicately finger-picked and interlocking guitar lines, looped harmonies and a breathy soprano that pitches up somewhere between Edith Piaf and Cat Power. Grandiose, sombre and stately, the emotional contours of the A-side are matched by two backing tracks similarly steeped in antiquity and pervaded by a feeling of intense musical literacy – ‘She Dwelt Among Th’Untrodden Ways’ in particular sees Rodgers adopting a narrative approach akin to her friend and sometime creative accomplice Benjamin Wetherill.

Greg Elliot

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