- After her Little Notes ep (a collaborative affair with A Singer of Songs), solo debut Some Were Meant for Sea and the b-side teaser, Haunts, Tiny Ruins toured the circuit for years, presumably via horse and carriage, playing beside mainstream indie darlings like Joanna Newsom, Calexico and Fleet Foxes.

Initially a solo platform for Hollie Fullbrook, Tiny Ruins’ latest release, Brightly Painted One, is the first to incorporate new members, bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alexander Freer. Written over three years and purportedly delivering a broader spectrum of subject, the album is nevertheless a whispery pluckfest.

It’s the typical kind of topical folk, purposefully haunting in the way of a low budget ghost movie but without the seat edge excitement or any incitement to raise your voice. Certainly Fullbrook never does, preferring instead the forlorn enthusiasm of letting her words fall out and linger in breathy gusts.

The newly minted members do a great job of providing the chamber for her music to echo in, but there’s little else for them to do. Basil and Freer seem to spend the bulk of their time gently underlining the fact that Fullbrook isn’t talking to herself, their minimalist backing desperately highlighting her desire to be heard.

Brightly Painted One is nice enough, it doesn’t do much but it doesn’t ask much either. If you like a certain style of unobtrusive lost girl lamentation, Tiny Ruins’ kiwi kind of Joni Mitchell routine will be warmly familiar, a forty-five minute journey of gently spartan tales to be heard by blanket and candlelight.

- Nic Addenbrooke.