Anna Calvi (album)

The debut album's material had been written in Anna Calvi's parents' attic, using eight-track equipment. Of Rob Ellis, best known for his work with PJ Harvey, she said:

He’s old-school rock‘n roll… you know, 'Hit the drums harder!' Which I love. We both share a love of classical music...he loves the same composers as I do. So I didn’t have to explain what I meant when I said that I wanted I wanted a guitar or a shaker to sound like an orchestra. It was great to find someone who understood.[7]

Calvi herself said she was proud with the album and picked out two songs where she felt she'd got close to what she ultimately wanted to achieve: "Love Won’t Be Leaving" (noted for microscopic sound detailisation) and "The Devil". "I see music very visually. And I want the music itself to express the story as much, if not more, than the lyrics. I think I achieved that on Love Won’t Be Leaving," she commented on the former. As for the latter, "It’s a good example of how I wanted to make the guitar sound like another instrument. I wanted the middle-section to sound like the strings on a Hitchcock soundtrack. It crescendos towards an explosion, but in a real and honest way. It's not about bravado," she added.[7]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[11]
Metacritic	80/100[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Evening Standard	[13]
Financial Times	[14]
The Guardian	[15]
The Irish Times	[16]
Mojo	[17]
NME	9/10[18]
Pitchfork	7.8/10[19]
Q	[20]
Uncut	[21]

Upon its release, Anna Calvi received generally positive reviews from music critics. Aggregating website AnyDecentMusic? reports a score of 7.6 based on 29 professional reviews.[11]

Reviewer Eamonn Seoige (IHeart AU), called the album "fully-formed and... an instantly engaging body of work", argued that it's "key strength is honest, raw power." Describing Calvi's songs as "poetic, free-flowing, often incorporating multiple styles that frame her distinctive and kaleidoscopic vocal range," he added: "A gifted musician, possessor of a unique voice and writer of inimitable songs, Calvi is already primed for greatness."[22] Matt James of PopMatters described Calvi as "eternally glamorous, but perennially doomed nightclub torch-song singer with a skeleton army in their closet" and her debut, never "afraid to be fantastical, striking," as "rich and strange".[23] NME called the debut "perhaps the first great record of 2011."[18] According to Jon O'Brien of AllMusic, this "ambitious and always intriguing debut... heralds the arrival of a unique and inventive addition to the plethora of U.K. female singer/songwriters."[1]

Mojo placed the album at number 8 on its list of "Top 50 albums of 2011."[24]

• Anna Calvi – lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, organ, piano, production, string arrangements, strings, violin
• Brian Eno – piano, backing vocals (tracks 3, 4)
• Mally Harpaz – drums, harmonium, percussion
• Daniel Maiden-Wood – bass, drums, backing vocals
• Dave Okumu – backing vocals (track 2)

Technical personnel

• Peter Deimel – engineering
• Rob Ellis – production
• David Odlux – assistant
• Chris Potter – mastering
• Jimmy Robertson – engineering
• Craig Silvey – mixing
• Pritpal Soor – mixing, production
• Emma Nathan - artwork