"There are many levels on which to admire Bella Hardy. That voice, of course - so vulnerable, exposed and unadorned - will always be her greatest weapon of mass distraction but, as we first discovered with Three Black Feathers over five years ago, she's also one of the best songwriters of her generation, even while most people still consider her main forte to be traditional material ... [The] mixing and matching of trad themes to trigger new ideas with modern lyrics is fast becoming a feature of the new breed of folk songwriters and more than any of her previous albums, Battleplan shows Bella Hardy at the very heart of it".
