Marlene Enright is talents as a musical alchemist have never been more visible than on her new single, taken from the debut solo album Placemats and Second Cuts due out in March 2017. ‘Alchemy’ weaves Enright’s world-weary vulnerability as a lyricist with her ethereal mezza-soprano, underpinned by some Sparklehorse-like arrangements, against a backdrop of dark themes in the vein of Karen O or Leslie Feist. It is the sound of modern roots music, evolved as it has over decades to something that is unmistakably 21st Century while still carrying echoes of the past.