Wainwright serves up charm and humour ... and the heartbreak

FIRST NIGHT Martha Wainwright Union Chapel, Islington ★★★✩✩

FILLING the cavernous Union Chapel with her nervous energy, wonky charm and confessional lyrics, Martha Wainwright was on perky form at the first of two back-to-back shows. Playing London for the first time since Christmas 2019, the 45-year-old Montreal native apologised for the “dreadfully autobiographical” songs on her latest album, Love Will Be Reborn, which chronicles her acrimonious divorce.

She opened with the title track, a silky croon couched in feathery jazz percussion, which sounded deceptively cheery. “That’s about as optimistic as it gets,” she quipped. Other selections from the album proved more bleak, especially Report Card, about the wrenching absences caused by shared child custody.

Behind her self-effacing humour and ramshackle demeanour, Wainwright knows how to quietly command a stage, instinctively drawing closer to the microphone to amplify breathy intimacy and pulling back during full-throated numbers. Similarly impressive was her use of vocals as musical shading, switching gear between whisper and yodel on emotionally raw tracks such as Justice.

Among stand-out choices from Wainwright’s previous albums was Around The Bend, with its one-liners about sex and drugs. Most of this show was rooted in vintage analogue Americana, but the folksy back-porch atmosphere became a little safe and samey, with a sense of more exotic music lurking just beyond the horizon. Wainwright is a hugely charming performer, but she could challenge her audience a little more.