When one considers the major musical genres, folk is often overlooked. Rarely breaking into the mainstream or ever enjoying dedicated radio playtime outside of the biggest names in the genre, it is kept alive by true artists and fans that spend their lives devoted to the music they love. From Neil Young to John Darnielle, many of the greatest songwriters of the past fifty years can be classified as folk and many of the biggest indie acts from the past decade, such as Iron & Wine or Fleet Foxes, can easily fall into the same category. Today, folk music is a huge genre with an unfathomable number of variations and, as with most genres these days, it has plenty of artists with differing influences, interpretations and talents releasing music with the same genre tag. Laura Groves, a young woman from Bradford, West Yorkshire, continues this trend with the carefully arranged and beautifully orchestrated songs that appear on her debut album.

While a listen through this album without knowing anything about it is still likely to leave you breathless, true appreciation comes with the knowledge that Groves is the sole member of Blue Roses and aside from the generous contributions of time and talent from friends and family, plays many of the instruments and acts as her own choir throughout the album. A wide variety of instruments ranging from guitar and violin to piano and synth appear on the album and occasionally, as with single “I Am Leaving”, all on the same track. Although it begins with a gentle, modest guitar plucking, the song quickly ascends to new heights with an oriental themed synth line and gorgeous choir vocals. However, when Groves begins singing the first verse and the synth and choir drop out, they are quickly forgotten. Although they reemerge later in the song, there is no question that, as with all of her songs, Groves' voice is the focal point.

Rather than directly imitating the form of the Joni’s and Stevie’s of the past, Groves’ songs borrow just as much from classical music as they do from folk, rock or pop. Beautiful piano and soaring strings accent Groves’ gentle and melodious guitar plucking throughout the album, while sporadic strikes of a xylophone or other percussion instruments add greater depth to her arrangements. The astonishing thing is, as beautiful as Groves’ arrangements may be, the album would be equally strong without them - with only a simple guitar and her voice. As spectacular as the orchestral components of the album are, Groves doesn’t use them to cover up sloppy songwriting. She has the basics down, and utilizes her extraordinary talent for arrangements to give her simple folk songs a unique edge over competing singer/songwriters and winds up with something sounding more like Grizzly Bear than Joni Mitchell.

The artistic aspect of music is often overlooked in these days of instant gratification. The fact that the music we listen to is often mass produced and heard by a relatively vast number of other people seems, for some reason, to distract us from the personal, emotional, and artistic aspects of music. Throughout Blue Roses, anyone can clearly imagine Groves sitting in a quiet room in her West Yorkshire home, pouring her heart out and delicately crafting melodies alone with a guitar or piano. Whether that’s really the way it happened or not is irrelevant; the album feels like that throughout; it feels authentic, and full of soul.

Track List:
1. Greatest Thoughts (4:02)
2. Cover Your Tracks (5:00)
3. I Am Leaving (3:26)
4. Can't Sleep (5:17)
5. I Wish I... (6:53)
6. Coast (4:06)
7. Does Anyone Love Me Now? (4:08)
8. Doubtful Comforts (4:09)
9. Rebecca (4:20)
10. Imaginary Fights (3:52)