Why U.K. Band Woman's Hour Are All Talk

Photo credit: Oliver Chanarin

The chatty lovers who inhabit the songs on Conversations, the debut album from London quartet Woman's Hour, belie the record's polished, tidy electronic production; they are confused and mired in insecurity, posing tough questions, dancing around the answers, hiding secrets, and trying to summon the truth only to push it away. "You can ruin relationships in one conversation," says singer Fiona Burgess, though she adds that the LP's title refers just as much to the dialogues we have with our conflicted, overanalytical selves. While Conversations's hushed intimacy, yearning guitar licks, and stately minimalism suggest the xx -- another young U.K. boy-girl group -- Woman's Hour have more in common with '80s sophisti-pop acts like the Blue Nile and Everything But the Girl. Like them, their music exudes a warmth and sophistication, but it's haunted by ghosts and shadows.

Watch the video for Woman's Hour's "Her Ghost" below: