Anais Mitchell: Young Man in America – review

Anaïs Mitchell's last album, the garlanded Hadestown, turned the story of Orpheus and Eurydice into a "folk opera". This follow-up is only slightly less ambitious, ingeniously exploring relationships between parents and children in a landscape part modern, part mythical. The title track, about a son whose father is "a repo man" and who "arrived like a cannonball", sets the tone with its mix of frontier archaisms and modern references, while subsequent songs take the part of mothers, lovers, orphans, poets and shepherds. A subtle weave of fiddles, squeezeboxes and mandolins provides the backdrop for Mitchell's parables on a brilliant, highly original album.