Always enjoyable to see Eliza but always slightly disappointed when she's pushing the self-penned stuff. I know these things are personal taste but it simply doesn't "do it" for me. Today's documentary seemed to imply that she's in the same writing tradition as Lal but I don't see any similarity. Eliza's songs tend to be poorly constructed with flat, obvious, verse. It is only the usual adept arrangements and committed playing that make them listenable.

Sitting through a concert at Bury on her last tour when she was previewing the new album you could sense the audience's goodwill and enthusiasm evaporating as she reached her third self-penned song. It was obvious that she was aware of this on stage and it was uncomfortable to watch. It must be awkward when you're used to rapturous applause for the trad and trad.arr. stuff but then the best you can muster with the new song writing is polite applause. She needs to learn from this, IMHO, and sparingly incorporate some of the new stuff into her normal folk shows rather than making her audiences listen to all the latest new-penned angst in a single sitting. A little goes a very long way.

I could have done without the rent-a-gob talking heads (Mark Radcliffe, zzzz zzzz) and the plodding narration.