Martha Wainwright I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too Review

It's hard to believe, given her ubiquity and collaborations, that I Know You’re Married But I've Got Feelings Too is only Martha Wainwright's second album. At once playful, touching and raw, it confirms her place as one of the world's most vibrant singer-songwriters and for those who only know her through her duet with Gary Lightbody on Snow Patrol's Set The Fire To The Third Bar provides an electrifying introduction to her talents.

Produced by Brad Albetta, Martin Terefe and Tore Johansson, I Know You're Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too is a striking mixture of light and shade. Opener Bleeding All Over You is a keening guitar-based ballad that captures the despair of unrequited love and very much sets the album's agenda with its chorus providing the work's title. In The Middle Of The Night flirts with being conventional folk, reflected in her voice and delivery, yet the track’s gathering gloom offers a rich goth folk. Hearts Club Band is a standout, a swooning four minutes worth of intricate wordplay and deft musicianship. There’s also a cute, bright version of Pink Floyd's See Emily Play, which de-psychedelicises the Syd Barrett classic into quirky power pop.

Her credentials bring along a coterie of special friends, including her mother, auntie and brother as well as Pete Townshend, Garth Hudson and Donald Fagen. I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too is destined to be an album of the year, a perfect sister to the similar-space occupying Nick Cave's Dig Lazarus Dig. It will take Martha Wainwright fully out of her family's shadow.