"Unequivocally lovely."
THE GUARDIAN

"A very promising talent."
UNCUT

"It's impossible not to fall in love with Mara Carlyle."
ATTITUDE

"This is an incredibly pretty album. Amid the sea of anaesthetic "chill-out" music that floods our environment, it's a delight to know that there are still artists out there for whom making gentle, laid-back music does not preclude passion, innovation and - well, the title says it all - loveliness."
THE TLEGRAPH

"Very appropriately titled, delicious debut from Carlyle."
THE OBSERVER

"Okay, so it might be a bit of a dangerous move, but when you have the voice of an angel - and an ability to marry elements of opera, electronica. jazz, classical, blues, gospel and a little touch of Hawaiian hula within one album - who's going to argue."
DJ MAGAZINE

"The Lovely is just that, a soothing mix of folk, classical, jazz and electronica"
HARPERS & QUEEN

"An old-fashioned torch singer with a heart-stopping voice...her beguiling blend of jazz and electronics is strikingly original"
DAILY MAIL

"Sounding like a glorious throwback to a bygone era.....her smoky vocals are backed by jazzy arrangements with hints of electro and gospel"
THE SUN

LIVE REVIEWS
UNION CHAPEL, LONDON (September 2004)

"Carlyle... is a marvel. She negotiates sensuous glissandos and leaps into a heartstopping upper register with deliciously understated, buttery phrasing and you envy the rapturous intensity she conjures almost casually."
The Guardian


IRISH TIMES, MONDAY 1 NOVEMBER

MARA CARLYLE - CRAWDADDY, DUBLIN
Her music is a little bit jazzy and a little bit folksy, so it's not
surprising that Mara Carlyle has been compared to Norah Jones. But
Carlyle, who's best known for her work with electronica group Plaid, is a lot
more interesting than Ravi Shankar's multi-platinum selling daughter.

Looking like a slightly racy 1920s debutante in her drop-waisted black
frock and glossy bob, Carlyle is accompanied by a guitarist-cum-bazouki
player, a double-bassist, and three angelic-voiced backing singers.Her music is
an utterly unique mixture of chanson, folk, electronica and sweetly
old-fashioned popular music, and her voice is astonishing, a pure folk
lilt that at times soars to dizzying heights. Her lyrics are equally magical,
laced with vivid fairytales that in less skilled hands could be irritatingly
whimsical, but instead are genuinely enchanting. She even plays the
musical saw. And while her live show is inevitably not as lush as her recorded
work, the songs don't suffer from the pared-down accompaniment.

So when Carlyle announces, halfway through the set, that she's going
to do what she calls her "Gaelic song", one assumes that she's going to
perform a wistful sean nos. Instead, she launches into a rousing version of that
Gaeltacht summer college standard, Oro Se Do Bheatha 'Bhaile, to the
general delight of the crowd (who sing along heartily in the choruses).

Carlyle seems genuinely charmed with the enthusiastic response of the
crowd, who call for not one but two encores, even though she laughingly
admits that she doesn't have any more songs to sing when she emerges for the
second. But even though this is her first ever solo tour and she admits that she's
"absolutely terrified", she rises to the occasion beautifully, performing
the mournful Lost to the Sea.

Anna Carey