When you mention Samantha Morton the first thing I think of is the Oscar-nominated actress’ portrayal of Deborah Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s Control. Then Movern Callar. Samantha’s stellar central performance in Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s cult novel. Or the fact that Sam was the original voice of the Ai protagonist in Spike Jonze’s Her. I don’t catch a lot of TV, so I’ve never seen The Walking Dead. In a really odd coincidence while I was listening to Samantha’s debut LP, Daffodils & Dirt, my son was watching Spielberg’s Minority Report – where she plays a psychic “precog” – dubbed into Japanese. The album is a collaboration between Samantha and XL’s Richard Russell, plus a few special guests. Backing vocals, for example, come care of the terrifically talented Laura Groves. The lyrics are poetic, for the most part cryptic, and read like a bruised, abused, diary. Sharing themes with Samantha’s directorial debut, The Unloved. Samantha spent her childhood between foster care and childrens homes, and while she stresses that the set is not strictly autobiographical, it shows. There’s an overwhelming longing to be loved. Cry Without End is my personal favourite. A fragile folk acapella that eventually expands in echo, over treated tambourine-like ticking and haunting, weird, Brian Wilson / American Spring harmonies. Snippets of acoustic strum. Telling a tale of “tears like stones.”

Let’s Walk The Night, though, is the most probable “hit”, the album at is most accessible, most pop. An effortless, ethereal, soft focus slice of R’n’B. Its heartbeat rhythm and music are reduced to a hum, and treated to twisted sax touches from Alabaster DePlume.

On Double Dipped Neon Samantha goes halves on an E. Her words, rave remembrances of that first, innocent, naive, teenage rush. Wanting to feel, be, believe in “all this love.” A sneaky sample of Sterling Void’s house anthem It’s Alright secreted within the song’s rattling snares, and dub, sub bass.

“Yeah, yeah.”

The artwork is a hyperreal snapshot of an early `80s suburban working class street. I recognise / remember, first hand, the itchy synthetic and acrylic catalogue fashions. 

Samantha Morten’s Daffodils & Dirt can be ordered directly from XL Recordings.