Eileen Rose - Long Shot Novena

More diverse and murkier (not to mention somewhat more fraught) than I'd expected based on the small handful of Rose's songs that I'd heard before (one of which, the bluesy six-minute ballad "Good Man", is on here), Long Shot Novena is rather good. Kicking off auspiciously with the sonorous acoustics of its title track, the album really starts to move with its next song, "See How I Need You", quirky, sinuous and swampy, and thereafter traverses a range of other folk/roots/rock stylings in fine style...without ever threatening to change my world, a solid, engaging listen from start to finish (the knees-up, tempo-shifting, jew's harp-underlaid, country stomp/shuffle closer, "Big Dog", is another highlight).