Beth Hirsch

Beth Hirsch was the voice behind a couple of tracks on Air's Moon Safari album. The similarities between this Beth and another, namely Ms. Orton, are fairly obvious - both got their start providing vocals for a dance act and then went on to put out their own solo efforts that were more folk than dance. Unfortunately, Hirsch doesn't retain any of the modern sensibilities on Early Days - instead we get straightforward, bare-bones acoustic-guitar and not much folk that owes more of a debt to the likes of Joni Mitchell and even Suzanne Vega. There's no doubting both her songwriting and vocal talents - tracks like "Gabrielle" and "Silent Song" have that haunting quality that is getting exceptionally rare. But fuller orchestration would definitely have helped her cause - songs with strings padding out the arrangement are probably the most memorable. Apparently a more electronica-based album is coming next and that might be the one that will hurtle her back into the spotlight again.