''Hunter'' is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter

Anna Calvi Anna Margaret Michelle Calvi (born 24 September 1980) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her accolades include three Mercury Prize nominations, one Brit Award nomination, and a European Border Breakers Award. She has been noted by ...

, released on 31 August 2018 by

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also ca ...

. The album was produced by

Nick Launay Nicolas Launay is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer. He is one of the most sought after record producers in the world due to his success with recent albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, IDLES, Black Reb ...

, with additional production by Calvi. The album features

Adrian Utley Adrian Francis Utley (born 27 April 1957) is an English musician and producer, and a member of the band Portishead.Jurek, ThomAdrian Utley Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved 31 December 2016 Career Born in Northampton,Mejia, Paula (2015)In Search ...

from Portishead and

Martyn P. Casey Martyn Paul Casey (born 10 July 1960) is an English-born Australian Rock music, rock bass guitarist. He has been a member of the Triffids, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Casey plays either his Fender Precision Bass or Fender Jazz Ba ...

from

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock music, rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its care ...

. Calvi announced the album on 6 June 2018. At the same time she released a single, "Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy", and announced a European tour in support. Calvi enlisted director

Matt Lambert Matt Lambert is an American filmmaker and photographer, primarily known for LGBT related works. Biography Matt Lambert was born and raised in Los Angeles. Most of Lambert photography and cinematic work explores youth and intimacy, especially in ...

to produce the video for title track "Hunter". ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

'' called it "an exploration of queer intimacy and self-love."

Critical reception

''Hunter'' received widespread acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 84, based on 20 reviews. At ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', critic Michael Hann praised ''Hunter'' as "glorious and triumphant" and "a record that succeeds on any terms you try to force upon it". Cameron Cook of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' noted Calvi's "remarkable evolution" and found that she "pushes her artistry to another level".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Hunter''.

Musicians

– vocals, guitar, synths, bass, piano, percussion * Mally Harpaz – vibraphone,

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

, percussion, piano *

Alex Thomas Alex Thomas (born 10 October 1978) is an English drummer from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, who performs with Squarepusher and Air. He also performed with John Cale (2013). Thomas joined Bolt Thrower on 21 August 1997. He played drums on ''Merce ...

– drums, timpani, percussion *

– Solina,

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

, Oberheim synthesizer,

EBow The EBow, short for electronic bow or energy bow, is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It is manufactured by Heet Sound Products, of Los Angeles, California. It was invented by Greg Heet i ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, Swarmatron * Martyn Casey – bass * Ming Vauze – bass, synths, space station FX pedals * Gillian Rivers – viola, violin *

Fiona Brice Fiona Brice is an English composer, orchestral arranger and violinist. Brice writes orchestral arrangements for various artists and has toured and recorded with several major pop and rock acts, including Placebo, Kanye West, Sugababes, Boy Geo ...

– violin; string arrangements on "Wish" * Ellie Stanford – violin * Rachel Robson – viola * Vicky Matthews – cello

Technical

– production, recording, mixing * Anna Calvi – additional production on "Indies or Paradise" and "Wish" * Isabel Gracefield – engineering assistance * Josh Green – engineering assistance * Mark Knight – engineering assistance * T. J. Allen – recording assistance * Atom Greenspan – Satellite Xtra engineering * Alejandro Baima – mixing engineering assistance *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...

– mastering

Artwork

* Imogen Snell – visual creative direction * Maisie Cousins – photography * Matthew Cooper – design

Charts

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Albums produced by Nick Launay Anna Calvi albums Domino Recording Company albums