1 	Hatchlings	4:20
2 	Hollin	4:24
3 	Hinge Of The Year	5:24
4 	Hushabye Birdie	0:39
5 	Ash Girl	4:01
6 	Old Mother Eve	3:29
7 	Jack	3:52
8 	Silver Swan		1:07
9 	Sleeping Beauty		4:56
10 	Sunken Bells	4:11
11 	Scorching Sun	3:20
12 	Black Sheep	0:44
13 	When You're Weary	3:00

Banjo – Emily Portman
Cello – Lucy Deakin
Concertina – Emily Portman
Fiddle – Rachel Newton
Guitar – Alasdair Roberts
Harp – Rachel Newton
Percussion – Will Schrimshaw
Saw – Lucy Farrell
Ukulele – Emily Portman
Viola – Lucy Farrell
Voice – Alasdair Roberts, Emily Portman, Lucy Farrell, Rachel Newton 

Portman's ability to weave new songs from old yarns, unveiled on her 2010 debut The Glamoury, is maintained with verve on this follow-up. Again the Northumberland-based singer mixes antique folk with myth and touches of magical realism, as in Hinge of the Year – inspired by Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus – a new year's tale with "vodka, wine and blood in the gutters". Portman's ethereal vocals work well enough alone but are best showcased by the cello and viola accompaniments of Sleeping Beauty and Ash Girl, both reminders that faerie land can be a dark and brooding realm. Marvellous. ---Angela Carter, theguardian.com

A tale of wicked stepmothers and dubious meat pies, Emily Portman’s Stick Stock – from her 2010 debut album The Glamoury – was a brilliantly dizzy fairytale. Its dark comic genius deservedly bagged a BBC Folk Awards nomination.

On second album Hatchling, Portman spins similar stories. Themes of heady mythology dominate, with doves pecking at breasts, wild wolves at doors and deranged goddesses aplenty.

Eight of these fables are self-penned. Opener Hatchlings is the best. A powerful song rooted in the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, Portman portrays the new mother of egg-hatched twins with fearful pride. The banjo on the track is quietly unsettling, perfectly matching the song’s paradoxical themes of maternal instinct and revulsion.

Also exemplary on this album are three fragmentary interludes of ancient lullaby – Hushabye Birdie, Silver Swan and, especially, Black Sheep. All are unaccompanied, and Portman’s pure vocals mesh with two other fine singers, Lucy Farrell and Rachel Newton. Their voices work in an almost primeval way; the witches of Macbeth could hardly sound eerier. The longer traditional, Hollin, also has something of this chant atmosphere, albeit one textured with harp and strings.

Unfortunately, Portman’s traditional interpretations highlight the diminishing returns of her own songs as the album wears on. Themes get repetitive, especially when taken in the context of her first album. The carnivalesque literature of Angela Carter is an acknowledged influence, but while Portman’s lyrics offer similar imagery, they lack Carter’s radical bite.

Portman simply comes across as too darn nice. It’s a problem that seeps into her delivery and arrangements, too. The words may tell of “vodka, and wine, and blood in the gutters,” but it sounds as if Portman would rather have a cup of tea and an early night.

This is an album, sadly, that shows little growth from her debut. Portman’s concerns are not developed enough for true conceptual unity, nor do they offer a satisfying diversity. What’s left is a frustrating piece, an album that – despite its lyrical claims to the contrary – watches the giddy lights of the fairground from a safe distance. --- Jeanette Leech, BBC Review

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01 – Darkening Bell 03:20
02 – Nightjar 03:30
03 – Brink of June 03:00
04 – Borrowed and Blue 05:09
05 – Coracle 04:42
06 – Eye of Tree 03:23
07 – Dotterine 02:24
08 – Seed Stitch 03:18
09 – A Grief 04:43
10 – High Tide 05:00
11 – Hollow Feather 02:43

Emily Portman – vocals, guitar
Lucy Farrell – violin, vocals
Rachel Newton – harp, vocals
Sam Sweeney – fiddle
Toby Kearney – percussion
M. G. Boulter - guitar

Emily Portman returns with the follow-up to Hatchling, the title track of which won the 2013 BBC Folk Award for Best Original Song. Coracle is Emily’s first collection of entirely self-written material.

Opening song Darkening Bell gives a glimpse into another world, where a Hill King draws the listener towards certain death in a ’jagged rock tomb’. Emily’s misleadingly sweet and innocent vocal over strings and Rachel’s harp beckons towards the rocks with the enchantment of a Siren. The dark theme continues with Nightjar’s enveloping tides before the suspenseful Brink of June wakes us up to the oncoming summer months.

Heartbreaking title track Coracle’s poignant lyrics describe the loss of a baby, while soaring strings give the song a chilling atmosphere that is enhanced by being recorded live inside a church.

In Eye of Tree, Emily provides a skewed response to the traditional ballad Tam Lin, which describes a woman’s unexpected pregnancy after an encounter with an elf. To a driving harp and gloomy piano, she describes a journey into the heart of a dark wood, in which she might have imagined the whole encounter as a trick of her own shadow and reflection.

The folk tale of the child who came from an egg is retold in Dotterine, with unaccompanied vocal harmonies that entrance throughout, while the sparsely orchestrated A Grief is another exploration of the fragility of life.

A collaboration with Liverpool poet Eleanor Rees resulted in the worrying yearning for a watery death that is High Tide and closer Hollow Feather retells the folk story of a death meted out by a team of birds, while beatboxer MaJiKer’s choral-like vocals give the song a resonating quality.

With Coracle Emily Portman has produced a deeply moving collection of intricately woven folk-pop songs as lyrically dark as they are stunningly beautiful to listen to. ---Roy Spencer, brightyoungfolk.com

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