R2 (Rock’n’Reel) Magazine – CD Review: 4 stars
By David Lees – May/June Issue 2015

“Lucia Comnes’s fourth album ‘Love, Hope & Tyranny’ features the Dallas Songwriters Association’s current song of the year, ‘No Hiding Place’. The first album for which Comnes wrote or co-wrote all the songs and sings them in English, it’s her most accessible. Her previous work featured a cappella and European folk, world fusion, songs in seven languages and an Irish/Celtic album recorded in Gaelic and English interspersed with jigs, reels and airs.
Comnes’s voice is crystal-clear and I love her double-stop style of fiddle playing but it is underused. This was deliberate, as Comnes ‘…wanted to focus on my songwriting for this album, so I let the songs lead and the fiddle follow. But in my live shows there is plenty of fiddling. And perhaps in the next album as well.’
Comnes’s subject matter is wide ranging. ‘Because They Never Do’, one of her ‘tyrannical’ songs is also a love song without hope – a haunting track about the exodus of millions of young Irish, whose parents were left behind to face famine. ‘Look Again’, about the horrors of Chernobyl, emphasises Comnes’s commitment to meeting and defeating current environmental challenges. This album sounds better with every listen.”