aaamusic | On 02, Jun 2012

‘Sarah’ is one of those songs that I wish I’d heard in album context. Terry Emm’s voice is emotive, and the sombre yet oh-so-tender folk instrumentation (softly fingerpicked acoustic guitars and a smooth, mournful accordion) does its absolute best to tug at the heartstrings, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that as a standalone track, this just can’t quite catch people. It’s a beautiful, beautiful song, it really is, with an understatedly poetic set of lyrics delivered with sublime melody and feeling that rises with the buildup of instrumental parts into a final, gently cathartic chorus. But the fact remains that it is the kind of ballad that usually occurs at that point in an album where the listener is already won over, or else needs to be part of a two-track release in order to create the same receptive sense of entering Emm’s musical “world”, as it were. So if you know Terry Emm’s music already, I am pretty sure you’ll find this an incredibly moving piece of singer-songwriter balladry. But as to whether it’ll grab any new ears, I’m not so sure.

★★★★★

Katie H-Halinski