Anna Calvi - Live at Meltdown (2018) Hi Res

Anna Calvi belongs to a category of uncategorisable singer-songwriters. This label could also be applied to St Vincent, Julia Holter, Bat for Lashes, Feist and Jenny Hval – musicians who march to the beats of their own drums, neither adhering particularly closely to rock and indie traditions, nor truly qualifying as pop (their music isn’t as dumbly infectious or popular enough for that).

But it does mean Calvi can prove a rather hard sell to the casual observer: a guitarist and singer who makes unrushed, elegiac songs sheathed in a jazz-club smokiness that often simmer with sensuality. But this evening – one of five European shows designed to preview her forthcoming third album, Hunter – her music proves easier to digest. Proceedings begin with the cave-like interior of London’s Heaven bathed in red. Calvi, in a black suit, white ankle boots and shiny red bandeau, stands at the end of a runway that juts out from the main stage, splitting the audience in two. It’s a simple, beautiful image that is also expertly designed for a visually arresting Instagram post – a sense cemented by the swathes of people with phones jostling for the perfect shot.

Throughout the show, Calvi uses the runway as a spotlight, returning to its tip for moments of melodrama. On new song Indies Or Paradise she saunters down it to screamingly shred on her guitar as a retina-destroying light show plays in the background. On Alpha, also from Hunter, she hurls her instrument around her torso as it crashes and shrieks. At other moments, the guitar whirs, wheezes and wails while Calvi looks and sounds as if she’s trying to hold a panicked cat in her arms.