A singer and songwriter based in London, Eve Owen was still a teenager when she spent three summer breaks writing and tracking her debut album in New York with the National's Aaron Dessner. In the meantime, she lent her distinctively plaintive, woodsy alto to live dates with the band and to their 2019 release I Am Easy to Find. Arriving a year later, Don't Let the Ink Dry presents a sonic palette in tune with Owen's voice. It's a warm, textured indie folk that seamlessly incorporates electronics as part of its consistently brooding, sepia-toned temper. Also lending their talents to the record were such high-caliber guests as Thomas Bartlett and Rob Moose, both accomplished indie producers in their own right. Song titles like "Blue Moon," "Lover Not Today," and "I Used to Dream in Color" capture the spirit of the set, which starts with a couple seconds of airy, unidentifiable ambient noise before Owen's quietly urgent voice and acoustic guitar join in. An intimate song about isolation ("All at once you walk away/Blindly to another day"), it adds piano, distorted bass and percussion, and eventually strings, all of which only reinforce its ethereal, haunted quality. Though "Mother" opens with electronic drum samples and strummed electric guitar, it seems no less restrained and pastoral, as Owen's melancholy vocals and lilting melody overtake mostly stagnant chords. Instead, it's live drums that become more active as the song progresses. Tracks like "She Says" and "Blue Moon" have more dramatic, passionate vocal lines, but the cloud-covered atmospheres of Don't Let the Ink Dry never pass. It's an album anchored in unsettled rumination, with compellingly grainy surfaces that reveal either the expertise of its accomplished collaborators or a sophistication beyond Owen's years -- likely both. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

1		Tudor
2		Lover Not Today
3		Mother
4		After the Love
5		For Redemption
6		Bluebird
7		She Says
8		I Used to Dream in Color
9		So Still for You
10		Blue Moon
11		29 Daisy Sweetheart
12		A Lone Swan