Katy Carr’s last album, Paszport, was one of the most original albums of 2012, featuring stories of Poland during the second world war. Her new set expands on her fascination for the country (she was born in England to a Polish mum and Scottish-English dad), and begins with a love song to Polonia, the Latin name for Poland, that shows her strength as a writer of grand, upbeat melodies. She then shows off her acrobatic vocals and piano work on a jaunty song about Charlie Chaplin and his Polish fiancee, before switching to reggae for stories about code-breaking and a distinguished Polish general who became an Edinburgh barman. It’s not always possible to tell what a song is about from the lyrics, but there’s a booklet to explain that the pained Snow Is Falling is actually about the Yalta conference, which placed Poland under communist control.
