Lisa Hannigan trips through the US in 'Passenger'

Dublin-based musician Lisa Hannigan returns to Los Angeles and released the official Myles O'Reilly-directed video for "Passenger," the title track from her latest stunning sophomore solo album which follows the Irish singer/songwriter's Mercury Prize-nominated solo debut, "Sea Sew." Despite the fact that many people would still likely recognize her talents before they would recognize her name. Nevertheless, her sophomore solo release, "Passenger," will surely more firmly establish her visibility.
Hannigan is one of the most interesting singer/songwriters of contemporary indie folk panorama. Ironic, pleasant and with an inborn musical talent. Her music, precise and autumnal, anoints folk-rooted ballads with dark strings, twinkling guitars and sharp mandolins. But it's Hannigan's spectral voice that gives the songs their alluring chill. Hannigan has crafted an evocative and quietly poetic sophomore album fulfills the sweet promise of her first, offering even more undulating emotional journey, and more honed arrangements, alliterative lyrics and vocals that vibrate with feeling.
"Sea Sew" was very upbeat and the songs varied in speed and tempos. "Passenger" feels unforced, spontaneous, timeless, and keeps a steadier pace and the melodies are more mellow. It explores themes and embarks to an interior geography such as travel, home and the passage of time and the songs find her blown sideways through life, expelled from home, pushed by the wind or experiencing lost love as a passenger on a trip you can't ditch, no matter how far you travel. The new album is a perfect kick-off to autumn, a subtle gem of an album that is a sure-fire name-maker.
The title track, "Passenger," is a sweet and fun song. It definitely reminds me of something Ingrid Michaelson would write and sing. Hannigan sings about a trip through the US. It's a great listen. Like all good actresses, Hannigan is not just telling stories here, she's mapping the absurd, mischievous, troubling but always potentially transcendent landscape of human emotion in which we are all journeying. With the release of "Passenger," Hannigan, now 31, seems to be drawing a line under all that, or at least signalling the end of a lengthy apprenticeship and the arrival of a mature singer-songwriter possessed of an idiosyncratic yet thoroughly accessible gift.