The piano rolls and flows in the latest single from folk-pop singer Holly Lovelady. ‘Year of the Cat’ is a contemporary re-imagining of Al Stewart’s 1976 song, swapping lines about ‘Casa Blanca’ for references to ‘Peaky Blinders’ to bring it up-to-date for a modern audience. She makes the song her own with hints of ghostly mystery and mysticism in both the instrumentation and in the atmospheric accompanying video, which features her performing under a star-filled sky. The symbol of ‘the cat’ relates to 12th year in Vietnamese astrology and there is certainly something other-worldly in Lovelady’s songs. Lovelady explains: “I want to take people on this journey of love, magic, astrological fate, being swept up by someone so mysterious that you lose all track of time and space.” Lovelady’s vocals, arrangements and song-craft bring to mind the likes of Kate Bush; indeed, her voice is soaring and ethereal, resonating with compelling melody and managing to be at once sweepingly powerful and delicate.
This is the follow-up to singles ‘Oreanne’ and ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’. The latter was praised by the original songwriter, Chris DeBurgh, and together they have surpassed 140,000 streams. She has a busy year ahead, with a tour across Ireland, beginning at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, and an appearance in a one-woman show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 2023 will also see Lovelady’s film debut in The freaks of Fancy while her music has been supported by the likes of Amazing Radio UK and US, as well as airplay on BBC Introducing In North West, BBC Merseyside, BBC Lancashire and BBC Cumbria. Be absorbed.
