It’s proved pretty nigh impossible to glean much background info on Daisy. Her website only reveals this simple chunk of autobiography – she’s 18, lives in a caravan in a field in Suffolk, writes songs and poems, is bilingual (English and Spanish) and has travelled fairly extensively. You could argue that any more detail should be irrelevant and that her music should speak for itself, notwithstanding that her music is shaped by the above-mentioned experiences.
Fair enough, one of the songs on this mini-album is sung in Spanish – this being Ya Está (which is translated as “it’s already”, or, more likely, “it’s over”), which is probably the most straightforward of the songs in terms of its lyrical content and expression. However, the track that follows, Want To Want, is arguably even more heart-rending, a plaintive and regretful piece that, while deftly and intricately accompanied on Daisy’s own guitar, strikes right to the emotional heart. Other songs turn out to be more elusive in nature, and one or two of them employ a slightly more textured backdrop involving producer/engineer Jason Ducker on (I think) bass and keyboard.
The opening track, Hold My Ghost, is seriously spooky, and provides a perfect introduction to the haunting (pun not intended) quality of Daisy’s singing voice, here in richly multitracked “choral” a cappella mode to really chilling effect. It makes quite an impression, despite its brevity (only just over a minute), and is a hard act to follow – so all credit to Daisy for continuing the strength of writing on through the disc’s seven tracks. Would You Remember? finds Daisy in a ruminative mood, accompanied by a simple yet insistent guitar rhythm, while This Envelope is a jittery, claustrophobic, inward-looking reflection backed with portentous chords and eerie backwards-trending effects. The pleading Earth, Let Me In then takes us outside looking in, and we’re back to the close-picked intimacy of just Daisy and her guitar, while the mysterious yet strangely comforting title track closes proceedings with a pulsing mantra.
Daisy’s intense songwriting and beguiling performance style deliver a disc that’s full of impact and yet probably a touch too short to satisfy completely. We can access three further examples of Daisy’s songwriting art (Lapse, Run Until and Folding Paper) via her Soundcloud page, which share a common identity and feel they belong with the seven tracks of Light On Our Limbs (which seems to be her only available record so may well be her debut disc). But even after hearing these I’m still left wanting more, as Light On Our Limbs has drawn me irrevocably into her world.
Available via Bandcamp here: daisyvaughan.bandcamp.com/releases