Laws of Motion

Following hot on the heels of A Pocket of Wind Resistance, Polwart's album to accompany her Wind Resistance theatre project, she has released another album that explores similar territories of movement, migration and inner meditation. She is joined by regular bandmates: her brother, guitarist Steven Polwart and multi-instrumentalist Inge Thomson.

This album feels like musical therapy. While the music is dazzlingly inventive, swooping, soaring and turning abruptly on a sixpence from discord to sweet lullaby, the poetry of the lyrics concerns fathers, sons, inherited pain, and the ephemeral nature of human life when faced with the awesome permanence of rock, ocean and stars. Her stinging spoken-word reproach to president Donald Trump – neatly revealing his own immigrant roots – brings to mind Ani DiFranco's response to George W Bush in ‘Self Evident’, but with more heart for the little boy he once was. The uncompromising atmosphere is well complemented by a cover of Sydney Carter's great anti-war song, ‘Crow on the Cradle’.

Elsewhere, little shimmering portraits of frail lives are revealed with Polwart's expected self-assurance – travelling easily from Japan to Italy and back to Scotland once more. And there's a sting in the tail – but I won't spoil it for you.