FEATURE: Release the Tension… Popland: Hopes That Ageism in the Music Industry Will Soon End

FEATURE:

 

 

Release the Tension…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kylie Minogue for Vogue Australia, September 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: ALIQUE

Popland: Hopes That Ageism in the Music Industry Will Soon End

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I am including…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Edward Cooke

Kylie Minogue in a feature next week when naming fifteen terrific 2023 albums by women. Her new album, Tension, was released on Friday (22nd September) and has received some of the best reviews of her career – up there with the praise she was getting for Light Years and Fever over twenty years ago. It shows that, regardless of how much time passes, an artist as innovative and talented cannot be precited or ignored. There are so many artists like Minogue who continue to make brilliant music through their career. Listen to Tension, and this is an artist at the top of her game. At fifty-five, some in the industry might think this is a moment to hold back. Many radio stations are wary of playing artists over a certain age. BBC Radio 1 were. When Tension’s first single, Padam Padam, came out in May, a lot of radio stations put it on their playlist. BBC Radio 1 did, though it took campaign and pressure from fans before they relented. As much as people would say otherwise, there are stations that are ageist. I put it out there a while ago that BBC Radio 1 are very reluctant to play an artist, especially a female artist, when they are over forty. Some came back and said that people like Beyoncé are being played. Sort of suggesting that was proof. You can be ageist if you play Beyoncé but do not feature Kylie Minogue! It is something impacts women more. It has done for decades. Things are starting to change, and I feel Kylie Minogue and the way people have responded to singles like Padam Padam and the Tension albums shows that it doesn’t matter what age an artist is. Minogue is going to write, record and deliver the music that feels real and right to her. She will wear what she wants on the stage!

That does not mean that this is how she dresses and is in real life. Why does the industry and particular radio stations still have the idea that once you get past a certain age you are reserved to certain station or irrelevant?! Why are many female artists viewed as past it or too old when they hit forty?! Even if it does impact all genders, women are more susceptible to it. Minogue spoke to The Sun on Sunday – I very much hate that paper, but I do love her music- and addressed the subject of ageism. Something she has been the recipient of for many years now. NME take up the story:

“Kylie Minogue has hit out at ageism and insisted she will continue to wear whatever she wants.

The singer who is now 55 and recently released her new album ‘Tension’, said that despite her age, she isn’t prepared to tone down her image.

She told The Sun On Sunday: “It’s not about being sexy, it’s about being yourself. I’m not going down to Tesco’s in thigh boots and a catsuit, but in Popland that is me. I don’t even call it sexy as even that feels passe.”

Minogue continued: “I am happy there is a strength in inhabiting your own playfulness, your own confidence and empowerment.

“It is an acceptance and kind of daring to feel confident with yourself and be at ease. I am really comfortable with what I am doing.”

She went on to say ageism will become irrelevant in the future.

The singer added: “Soon ageism will be so uncool you just won’t do it. Just let that person live and breathe in their space.”

She continued: “If people are talking about ageism in music, it is talking about it in relation to ‘we shouldn’t be talking about it’. It is almost irrelevant.

“I think younger generations are so open-minded they are not bothered about it”.

You only need to look around to see that Minogue is not the only woman in music who is wary of ageism. I think there is still this emphasis on younger artists on TikTok. Something seen as fresher and more relevant. Apparently lived experienced and that sense of brilliance you get from years in the industry is not as important as youthful energy. In Minogue’s case, she has both of these. So do many of her peers! From Madonna to Sheryl Crow, successful and hugely influential women have talked about being side-lined and seen as ‘too old’ – at the same time as many of the younger artists they inspired are being embraced. Minogue is subverting the industry and ensuring that artists are not labelled and defined when they get to a certain age. The fact they should not be told what to wear or what sort of music they should release. The fact Tension is as thrilling and exciting as any album this year shows age isn’t an issue. Belinda Carlisle has spoken about ageism and praised Madonna for tackling it. Even a new and younger artist like Blondshell (New Yorker Sabrina Teitelbaum) – who is still in her twenties – has felt the pressure of ageism and a sexist agenda when it comes to relevance. She told NME about it a few months ago:

“The LA-based artist who was speaking on NME‘s The Cover this week, is only 26 but the singer-songwriter said that she was made to feel that by her late teens and early twenties, she might be considered “too old” to make it in music. “There’s that horrible thing where people say you have to be under a certain age to be a musician, and I felt that because it was explicitly said to me,” she said. “The idea was always there through media and people talking about the music industry – there was always an emphasis on youth and this idea that you write your best songs before a certain age.”

The pressure to find success before she got too deep into adulthood was exacerbated by her gender, which added the need to fit into beauty and age standards.

“It affected my sense of urgency in a very painful and stressful way,” she said. “I was like, ‘I gotta make this album now, and then I have to find people to work with so that they can help me put it out and get it heard. And this one has to be great because I don’t have a million tries’.”

She added: “I don’t want anyone listening to my music who would be like, ‘She’s not young enough’ or who would think I’m less interesting because I’m over 25. Alright, don’t listen to it, don’t come to the show!”.

There is this thing where the industry still wants women especially to be younger. Maybe they feel radio and online audiences are mainly younger people. Perhaps that music is only seen as important or real if they come from a younger artist. What happened when BBC Radio 1 initially sidelined Padam Padam, listeners of the station were saying it was not a factor. Even if your main demographic is younger, that does not mean slightly older artists are not going to connect. If anything, the experience and stature that someone like Kylie Minogue has is as powerful and important as anything coming from an artist in their teens or twenties. Many younger women are sexualised and promoted because of their looks and sexuality, whereas a female artist over forty, if they dress sexily and exactly how they want, is seen as unseemly or inappropriate. It is that double standard that does not really apply to male artists (The Rolling Stones, for instance, are seen as embracing older age and their energy and swagger is embraced). Male artists are subject to ageism too, though there is a greater prolificacy when you look to female artists. This People interview also found Minogue talking about ageism in the music industry:

“Padam Padam” dropped as the first Tension single and became your first solo top-10 hit in the U.K. since “All The Lovers.” Women, unfortunately, tend to have a bit of a harder time getting radio play and chart success when they're no longer young adults. But you are in your mid-50s with your biggest hit in over 10 years. Was there ever a time where you thought it wouldn't happen again?

I'm trying to think of when, because this is all I've ever done, so for me, I just keep going. Sometimes it's more successful than other times, but I've never had that thought come from me. It's been projected on me from outside. I remember a few years ago being in a lot of interview situations where I would be asked, "What age do you think it is still OK to be in pop music, or to be sexy in pop?" It was really awkward, and I felt like I had to justify my presence there.

So, what's happening now very organically, I'm talking about it with you because it's happened. I've not been out there flying that flag. Of course, it's a great moment for me — but it's a great moment for other artists, women particularly, who have this kind of prejudice or bias against them. So, like I say, I didn't set out to do this. I've also been the youngest kid where I had to fight to be heard or just occupy my space.

The negative then was, "Well, you’re 18. what do you know?" So, through all the decades of my career, there's been something, and here we are. I'm really proud to be representing this moment, and guess what? The earth didn't cave in, and everyone's having a great time. This is the age I am. What can I do?

A good song is a good song. It shouldn't really matter who it comes from.

And I think it should matter less and less. You've got Elton John [making hits] — we can go through all of this. It's kind of boring to go through. But perhaps [radio] programmers who may have felt shackled to that way of thinking, it's liberating for them as well to go, "Hey, we've got more opportunity here and more scope to be really inclusive,” and that's just a modern way of thinking”.

Let’s hope that things do change and legendary artists like Kylie Minogue releasing such fun, vibrant and hugely stunning music is a sign that age is never a factor (at least it shouldn’t be). An artist should be judged on their music alone. The discussion will continue on - though the success of Tension will hopefully show that ageism is not cool; it is an insult to artists that have so much to offer. The industry needs to change its attitudes, ageism and prejudices, and realise that youth does not translate to significance and importance. There is room on all stations for artists of all ages. So long as the music is striking a chord and is great, why is there still an issue?! Things need to change. They need to stop their ways, open their minds, and…

RELEASE the tension.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace

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ONE of Paul McCartney’s underrated solo albums…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

I wanted to shed some new light on Pipes of Peace. Released on 31st October, 1983, it has never really got the love it deserves. Aside from its brilliant title track, Say Say Say, So Bad and Sweetest Little Show are really great. There are as couple of weaker tracks. Maybe people were slightly disappointed following 1982’s excellent Tug of War. Not the most fertile and inspired couple of years for McCartney – 1984’s soundtrack album, Give My Regards to Broad Street, was widely panned -, I think that we need to throw some new light and love in the direction of Pipes of Peace. I think this is an album that was bringing in a bit of John Lennon. I think of Lennon’s anti-war songs and his give peace a chance mantra. Maybe some Ringo Starr too. McCartney nodding to his Beatles bandmates. George Harrison too. I am going to come to another feature soon. First, and thanks to the Paul McCartney Project, here are some background details and depth regarding Pipes of Peace:

“About

“Tug Of War” is supposed to be about opposites, I forget what you call it, dichotomy or something. The duality. Yes and No, Up and Down, Man and Woman. Always some kind of conflict, even if you’re married and in love, she’s still a girl, you’re still a boy… Blacks and whites. Dualities. It’s not easy to bring together two sides of a coin. So that was like the question if there was a theme on “Tug Of War”, that was the sort of theme we played with.

So, on ‘Pipes Of Peace,’ I wanted to answer that, I didn’t want to just leave the question posing ‘How do you ever get the dualities together?’ And on ‘Pipes Of Peace,’ there’s a little quote from Rabindranath Tagore would you believe, Indian lovers? He was an Indian poet, and he just has a thing about ‘In love, life’s contradictions dissolve and disappear.’

It seems to me that that’s the kind of thing. There is this big paradox, and duality. But in love, somehow, it mystically goes away. Somehow there aren’t problems with black and white if they sort of love each other. So in trying to find an answer, this one is a bit more towards ‘The answer is love.’ And it’s very corny, and it’s been said a million times before. But if you can’t find another answer, what are you going to do? I would like to have been able to say the answer is Ralph! And I’ve got it, and it’s very original…

But the only one I could find was love. I ask myself, what is the answer to that duality? So that’s what this one became about, ‘Pipes Of Peace’, love! ‘The Other Me,’ ‘So Bad,’ ‘Keep Under Cover’ stuff. It’s all about trying to answer the dilemma of ‘Tug Of War,’ and that’s enough serious talk — for months!

Paul McCartney, from Club Sandwich N° 31, 1983

Way back, when we started ‘Tug of War,’ my thoughts to Paul were ‘Let’s make a slightly harder, a more funky album than perhaps you have done in the past’… In fact, the ‘Pipes Of Peace’ album became more what we were looking for in ‘Tug Of War,’ and certainly Michael Jackson’s tracks turned out that way. Although they were Paul and Michael’s songs, they seemed to get more of that dynamism on those tracks.

George Martin, from Club Sandwich N° 31, 1983

From Wikipedia:

Pipes of Peace is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, released in 1983. As the follow-up to the popular Tug of War, the album came close to matching the commercial success of its predecessor in Britain but peaked only at number 15 on America’s Billboard 200 albums chart. While Pipes of Peace was the source of international hit singles such as “Say Say Say” (recorded with Michael Jackson) and the title track, the critical response to the album was less favourable than that afforded to Tug of War.

Background and structure

Upon its release, many were quick to notice that Pipes of Peace mirrored its predecessor in many ways. It was produced by George Martin, it featured two collaborations with the same artist (this time with Michael Jackson; the Tug of War collaborations being with Stevie Wonder), and continued McCartney’s alliance in the studio with Ringo Starr, former 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart and his last session work with Wings guitarist Denny Laine. The reason for all of this is that many of the songs released on Pipes of Peace were recorded during the 1981 sessions for Tug of War, with “Pipes of Peace“, “The Other Me”, “So Bad”, “Tug of Peace” and “Through Our Love” being recorded afterwards, in September–October 1982. By November, McCartney would start shooting his self-written motion picture Give My Regards to Broad Street, co-starring wife Linda, Ringo Starr and Tracey Ullman, which would take up most of his time throughout 1983. Due to the filming commitments (and to allow a reasonable lapse of time between his new album and Tug of War), Pipes of Peace was delayed until October for release.

With momentum building for his film project – and the accompanying soundtrack album – McCartney would spend much of his energies finishing and preparing Give My Regards to Broad Street for its release in the autumn of 1984.

In 1983 Pipes of Peace made its debut on CD on Columbia Records. In 1993, the album was remastered and reissued on CD as part of “The Paul McCartney Collection” series, with the previously unreleased “Twice in a Lifetime” (the title song for a 1985 film); his 1984 hit from the Rupert Bear project, “We All Stand Together“; and “Simple as That“, released in 1986 on the charity album The Anti-Heroin Project – It’s A Live-In World – all as bonus tracks. “Ode to a Koala Bear” (the B-side to “Say Say Say”) was overlooked for inclusion. The album was reissued in remastered form in 2015 as part of the ongoing ‘Paul McCartney Archive Collection’ series of releases. The version with “enhanced packaging” contains three discs: the remastered album itself, a bonus audio disc containing mostly demo versions of the songs found on the first disc, and a disc with a film.

Critical reception

Critical reaction was less than that which had greeted Tug of War, many feeling that Pipes of Peace was a weaker execution of its predecessor’s formula. In addition, author Howard Sounes writes, the album’s commercial reception was “slightly disappointing, considering the quality of the work“. Sounes views Pipes of Peace and its predecessor as “abounding with well-crafted tunes” that almost match the standard of McCartney’s work with the Beatles; yet, he adds, the two albums “must be marked down for a surfeit of love ballads with lamentable lyrics“.

Reviewing the album for the NME, Penny Reel described Pipes of Peace as “A dull, tired and empty collection of quasi-funk and gooey rock arrangements … with McCartney cooing platitudinous sentiments on a set of lyrics seemingly made up on the spur of the moment.” Reel opined that the “one decent moment” was the title track, which he found to be “a Beatlish soiree surely destined as a Christmas single“, before concluding: “Even here, however, a note of insincerity in the vocal finally defeats the lyric’s objective.“

The album featured the duet between McCartney and Jackson, “Say Say Say“, which reached number 2 in the UK and number 1 in the US, where it remained for six weeks through to early in 1984.

Following “Say Say Say“, the album’s title track became a UK number 1, while in the US, “So Bad” was a top 30 hit. Pipes of Peace peaked at number 4 in the UK and number 15 in the US. […]”.

I think I will finish with a couple of reviews that paint a kinder picture of a great album by Paul McCartney. Similar to later albums like Off the Ground (1993), some people really love it, whilst most find it disappointing or below-par. This is what Pop Rescue said in 2018 – twenty-five years after the release of Pipes of Peace:

“This George Martin (The Beatles, Cilla Black etc) produced album opens with the title track Pipes Of Peace, its own opening reminiscent of The Beatles orchestral warm ups caught on tracks like A Day In The Life. Soon though, Paul’s vocals come in with a gently plodding beat, bass, and tinkering piano, aiding to his lyrical delivery of a message promoting human and Earthly unity, with an anti-war video set in the trenches of France during Christmas 1914. This would be the second and final UK single, hitting the top of the UK singles charts in 1983.

The tempo takes a welcome turn up for Say Say Say. This was the album’s lead single, allowing the album to hit the ground running with this hit #2 UK single. The track still feels as catchy and fresh as it undoubtedly was back then. Michael Jackson‘s vocals sit well alongside Paul’s, and the whole track is lent a funkier sound that wouldn’t be amiss from his Off The Wall album. It’s hard not to tap a foot to this track.

This is followed by The Other Me, which possibly takes the historic title of being the only song so far to have the line “acted like a dustbin lid”. This track feels, in contrast to the previous tracks, quite simple, and it takes some time before a roaring electric guitar chugs in.

Up next is Keep Under Cover, which is quite uptempo and bouncy. At times it sounds like something that you might find on a Madness album, or something that didn’t make it on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.

Side One closes with So Bad, which is a gentle ballad, which seems to be sung by Linda McCartney and Paul. Violins and cellos wash in in the later half. Lyrically it’s a bit nauseating, but it draws side one to a close just fine. This track was a top 30 single for Paul in the US.

Side Two bursts opens with the second Michael Jackson collaboration, The Man. Opening with guitars and strings, and punctuated with handclaps, this song is pretty mellow to be honest, and almost feels like they’re singing about each other, and a bit of a waste of the collaboration opportunity.

This is followed by Sweetest Little Show, which has some really nice vocal harmonies, and a great bassline. A little guitar solo in the middle isn’t little enough, but eventually heads back to the action before getting stuck on a fade into…

…Average Person. This track is laden with piano, and more familiar McCartney character narratives. This feels like it could have been a Beatles draft song, but it’s uptempo, fun, and bright, and works well here with what sounds like Ringo Starr on backing vocals.

Near-instrumental Hey Hey follows this, and whilst there’s some nice funky bass, and guitar riffs throughout, it’s just filling up some vinyl space with little else to offer.

Tug Of Peace begins with what I couldn’t decide whether it was a didgeridoo or some bass low vocal synths. However, it soon abandons this for a bit of a mess of beats, instruments and occasional vocals. Despite it being a nod to previous hit album Tug Of War, just move along…

The album closes with Throughout Love, a mid-tempo track that gently wanders along with strings, Paul’s soft vocals and plenty of Oohs. The song gradually builds up, almost sounding something that could could imagine Dusty Springfield or Cilla belting out in the 60s. It’s a nice ending to the album.

Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s ‘Say, Say, Say’ single

Over all, this album is a pretty easy listen, and I can imagine it had wide appeal – with plenty for older fans in the George Martin production, Paul’s familiar vocals and narrative lyrics, and the appearance of Ringo on drums for a couple of tracks.

It also had a nod to the modern, with the appearance of Michael Jackson, and what sounded like a gentle sprinkling of keyboards just to nudge it towards the electronic music fans”.

I will round off now. I know Pipes of Peace is getting a new vinyl release on 23rd October, but it seems like it will ship from the U.S. You can get a C.D. or vinyl copy here. When Pipes of Peace was reissued in 2015, PASTE came to its defence and argued why it is so much stronger and more worthy than a lot of people have given it credit for. It has plenty of wonderful moments that prove Paul McCartney is a constant brilliant artist who at least always puts a moment of genius or two onto every album:

“Eighteen months after the release Tug Of War, Paul McCartney’s follow-up album hit shelves. Leading off with the huge smash single with Michael Jackson “Say Say Say,” expectations were high for Pipes Of Peace. The single, which spent six weeks at the top of the chart starting in mid-October of ‘83, had been recorded in 1981. However, it didn’t see release until nearly two years later. If it were released as a single today, it would still rise up the charts. There is an obvious chemistry with the duo’s trading of lines in the verses, and the rhythm guitar’s presence, while slight, is exemplary. Add in some well-arranged horns and an always-welcome harmonica, and you’ve got a hit that has stood the test of time for 30-plus years. While Jackson’s vocals are the most impassioned of the two, McCartney’s steadying vocal presence provides a needed balance that helps keep the track overall in the pocket.

Certainly by late 1983, it was a Michael Jackson world the music industry was living in. What even most Michael Jackson fans forget, however, is that the pair recorded another song aside from “Say Say Say” and “The Girl Is Mine” (from Thriller) called “The Man.” That track, which ended up being shelved as another single from Pipes Of Peace, finds the pair in a different mode. Compared to the rhythmic and funky “Say Say Say” and the—at times—corniness of “The Girl Is Mine,” “The Man” leans into straight-ahead pop territory. The track glides along a tick above a midtempo pace with some light orchestration and even an electric guitar solo in the middle. “The Man” is a better-than-average song, but the other two compositions by the pair were and are still better suited to be hits.

Let’s be clear, though, that Pipes Of Peace is more than a couple Michael Jackson songs and a bunch of filler. The title track, while never released as an official single in the US, was a No. 1 hit in the UK and had a video filmed for it (which is included on the DVD in the deluxe edition of this reissue). It stands firmly as a strong composition in its own right with an excellent vocal arrangement and a nice use of tabla to boot. “So Bad,” a ballad, found moderate success at the end of ‘83 and early ‘84 on the charts, reaching as high as No. 23 on Billboard’s pop chart. McCartney climbs the register into almost uncomfortable falsetto territory, although it’s a well-arranged vocal that both McCartney and longtime studio producer/friend George Martin had a hand in.

“Sweetest Little Show” is another fun number. Starting with a slightly bluesy lick, it switches gears into a singalong ditty with a light hop to it. With 90 seconds remaining in the track, it moves into a charming instrumental acoustic guitar breakdown that has a second guitar to embellish the melody before getting one final chorus reprise. Two songs later, “Hey Hey,” an instrumental with a fun party vibe, has the feel of a jauntier version of The Beatles’ “Birthday” guitar riff, although it’s not an all-out copy of it. Even though it’s panned by naysayers, “Hey Hey” is a feel-good song that feels less forced than a track like “Average Person” or “The Other Me.” To that end, it’s a refreshing piece of music.

A bonus disc collects three demos from the sessions of songs that would appear on the album (“Average Person,” “Keep Under Cover” and “Sweetest Little Show”). Of those, “Sweetest Little Show” shines brightest, although it helps that it’s the best song of the trio. Its tempo is slowed ever so slightly, and curiously the demo is longer than the final version even without having the one-minute instrumental break that is found on the album version. Two other demos are included as well: “Simple As That,” a rather uninteresting previously unreleased track and “It’s Not On,” a song that sounds finished as is and that features multiple odd character-style voices. It’s certainly a grower, but it could have been an interesting b-side, if nothing else.

Also included is a new remix of “Say Say Say” that features some alternate vocal takes where verses previously started by McCartney are now covered by Jackson. As confident as Jackson is through most of the song, McCartney gives a better vocal take in the replaced lines. Still, it gives us an alternate reality of what was envisioned for this track. Various other ad libs are sprinkled throughout the last four minutes over an instrumental bed. The original b-side to “Say Say Say” entitled “Ode To A Koala Bear,” an ‘80s song over ‘50s-styled triplets that is truly as straightforward (and head-scratching) as its title implies; the title song to the soundtrack of Twice In A Lifetime from 1985; and a previously unreleased instrumental called “Christian Bop,” which dates to 1981, round out the bonus disc.

For the deluxe set, a DVD gathers the three music videos filmed for the album (“Pipes Of Peace,” “Say Say Say” and “So Bad”), and home video from McCartney’s personal collection —ncluding locations such as Montserrat, where some of the music was recorded, and the UK with Jackson horseback riding with the McCartney family—round out the media. As with previous releases in the Archive Collection, a beautiful book is included that has interviews with various members involved with the making of the album and a bountiful collection of photos as well as another full book of shots from the “Pipes Of Peace” music video.

Pipes Of Peace as a whole isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch. There are songs that drag the album down, but there’s also a bevy of material with enough meat to make it a hearty collection. Giving it a nice remastering and including it in the Archive Collection series, which is now five years in (and still going), helps to shine a spotlight on an album that may have only otherwise been remembered for one song. It’s worth revisiting for more”.

On 31st October, we celebrate an album that has been seen more as a trick than a treat. I think that, in 1983, McCartney was still producing amazing work. Ahead of the fortieth anniversary of Pipes of Peace, we need to revisit this album – and buy it and give it another spin if you can. Beautifully produced by George Martin, it features a gorgeous and memorable title track with that incredible video. There is much to recommend about an album that has never…

GOT its fair dues.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four: The Lead-Up to Her Sixth Studio Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four

IN THIS PHOTO: An unused shot of Kate Bush taken for an NME cover feature in September 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins

The Lead-Up to Her Sixth Studio Album

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IN the final feature…

celebrating the upcoming thirty-fourth anniversary of Kate Bush’s The Sensual World, I want to look at the background and lead-up to its release. It came out on 17th October, 1989, where it reached number two in the U.K. I have already put in some interviews where Bush was discussing the album and her inspirations. I think people assume that she went quiet after 1985’s Hounds of Love. She was releasing singles from it but, by 1986, there must have been people wondering when another album would come out. Four years after her masterpiece, Bush came back with another astonishing album – albeit one that sounded very different. Thanks to this website, The Garden, who have compiled a timeline of Bush’s life and career from 1958-1990. I will interrupt certain sections. But let us pick up the baton from late-1986. Her greatest hits album, The Whole Story, came out then. Apologies for any incorrect dates there might be. The source is pretty reliable, so most should be okay. They do say that Bush interrupted the filming of her video for Experiment IV on 9th November to attend party at the Video Cafe organised by the Kate Bush Club and Homeground. I think Experiment IV came out as a single in October, 1986, so it may have been the case it came out and the video followed after The Whole Story was released. Anyway, for those wondering where Bush would go after 1985’s Hounds of Love, she answered their question the following year:

“November 10, 1986

The Whole Story, the first Kate Bush compilation album, is released. It is promoted by the most expensive TV advertising campaign EMI has ever mounted. Sales are massive.

1987

Despite reservations by Kate herself, EMI resolves to release a video compilation of The Whole Story. Again, sales are enormous. The worldwide commercial success of the album is greater than that of any of her earlier albums.

Meanwhile, Kate dives into the recording of a new studio album.

To date, the main part of Kate's creative activity since the middle of 1986 remains a mystery.

It does appear that Hounds of Love promotion took her through 1985 and a lot of 1986. Given the fact she put most of her all into that album, perhaps she needed some time to relax. Too much pressure on artists putting something out right after their current album. Songs for a new album would have been forming, though I don’t think there was much in the way of plans for new music until 1987. That is the year when Hounds of Love’s work was very much done. She could look ahead to the next chapter.

February 1987

Kate appears at the 1987 British Phonographic Industry Awards, and this time wins the competition for Best Female Singer, despite the fact that the album for which she won was released more than a year earlier.

Kate also wins in the same category of the U.S. College Music Awards and accepts the award in a brief comic film shot at her home in England.

Kate records an original song for the Nicholas Roeg film Castaway, called Be Kind to My Mistakes.

March 28/29, 1987

Kate performs Running Up That Hill and Let It Be live with David Gilmour at Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Third Ball concerts.

March 1987

Kate does some session work for the second album by Go West, called Dancing on the Couch: she sings backing vocals on the track The Kind is Dead. She also contributes vocals to a single release of Let It Be, the proceeds from which are targeted for the families of the victims of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

1987 was a very busy year. After winning an award for an album that was, at this time, quite old showed how much love there was for Kate Bush. She definitely didn’t quibble! There would have been a lot of demands on Bush’s shoulders after Hounds of Love’s success and huge reviews. She was approached for Castaway but turned the role down. From the look of the film and the fact Oliver Reed was in it, she dodged a big bullet there!

Even though The Sensual World came out in 1989, one of its best-known songs, This Woman’s Work, started life much earlier. It appeared on a film soundtrack. A rare occasion of Bush giving movie-goers a taste of new music that would then appear on a studio album:

Kate also writes and records a song called This Woman's Work for the John Hughes film She's Having a Baby, which is finally released in February 1988.

late 1987

Kate agrees to lend her name to a new vegetarian campaign launched by the Vegetarian Society to publicise excessive cruelties within specific areas of the meat trade.

1988

Publication of The Kate Bush Club Newsletter is suspended pending the release of Kate's still-unfinished sixth studio album.

Kate attends a concert by Davy Spillane, an Irish musician formerly of the band Moving Hearts, who contributes uillean pipes tracks to Kate's new album. She also attends concerts by the Momentary Lapse of Reason incarnation of Pink Floyd, and by violinist Nigel Kennedy.

April 1, 1988

A report is printed in The Guardian that Kate has taken on a lead role in the longrunning television series Dr. Who. The date of the report is overlooked by some fans.

Lots of weird and wonderful happenings! There was definitely anticipation of a new album in 1988. Perhaps there was this sort of speculation that was not answered until the following year. I like the fact that Bush was rumoured to be in Dr. Who! She must have got all sort of T.V. and film offers, so this one is not a surprise. I sort of hear elements of Dr. Who’s eeriness and science fiction in some of the songs that appeared on The Dreaming and Hounds of Love.

July 30, 1988

Kate celebrates her thirtieth birthday by participating in an AIDS charity project involving some 200 celebrities. She serves as a shopkeeper for the day at Blazer's boutique.

August 22, 1988

Kate comments on London for a BBC2 television programme, Rough Guide to Europe.

September 1988

Midge Ure releases a new album, which features a guest duet vocal with Kate on the track Sister and Brother.

Fall 1988

After making contact with Joe Boyd, co-producer of the Balkana compilation album of traditional Bulgarian vocal music, Kate travels to Bulgaria to meet with Yanka Rupkina, Eva Georgieva and Stoyanka Boneva, nationally famous soloists who perform and record together under the group name Trio Bulgarka. Meeting again with the Bulgarians in England, Kate records three vocal tracks with Trio Bulgarka for the sixth album, and makes an appearance with the Bulgarian vocalists for a video-taped segment of the BBC series Rhythms of the World, which is broadcast in the spring of 1989.

That was quite an important passage of time. Spending her thirtieth birthday in a typically unselfish way, she has already got this plan to use the Trio Bulgarka in her music. You can hear and see more about this fascinating part of her career. Going to Bulgaria and facing that language barrier. I think it was her brother Paddy that brought the Trio Bulgarka to Bush’s attention. They add something otherworldly to the songs they appear on! They would be recruited once more for The Sensual World’s follow-up album, The Red Shoes.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with the Trio Bulgarka

Summer 1989

Kate appears briefly in a video for a worldwide television programme about ecological issues called Our Common Future. She is seen in a London studio with many other artists, singing two lines from a song written for the programme (not by Kate). The song is called Spirit of the Forest. The programme, with the pre-recorded video, is aired on June 4, 1989.

There is also a report that Kate appeared at the United Nations with Peter Gabriel and other artists in support of the campaign to save the rain forests; but as of presstime this report had not been confirmed.

Kate's sixth studio album is finally finished at the end of May.

You can see that Kate Bush was pretty busy in the lead-up to The Sensual World being released. I like the fact that she was engaged in charity work in addition to making music. Very typical of her! There must have been that excitement in the summer when she had the album complete. As it did not come out until October 1989, there was the business of selecting the first single. This Woman’s Work and Love and Anger were second and third. There was no doubting which track would be the lead single (worth checking out this long version, as there are some nice clips of Kate Bush).

Fall 1989

Kate's new single, The Sensual World, is released on September 18th, and her sixth studio album, The Sensual World, is released at last on October 16th. The video for the first single is debuted during the week of September 15th. Meanwhile Kate's new U.S. label, Columbia Records, decides to release Love and Anger as their first Kate Bush single, and Kate, apparently trusting the company's knowledge of the American market, must rush to produce an accompanying video.

Back in England, the new single debuts at number 12 in the Music Week/Gallup chart, sinking to number 15 its second week; but the BMIRC chart tells a quite different story, listing the single's chart debut as number 16, but placing the record at number 10 the second week.

The album does rather poorly in England, mainly for two reasons: the radio stations' refusal to play the music, and Kate's unwillingness to offer any more than minimal support for the record. She makes no personal signing appearances, and makes only a few brief television appearances”.

It is interesting that there was this bit of a shift after Hounds of Love. Maybe less commercial, The Sensual World was maybe not as marketable. It is considered one of her best album, though you can appreciate that people may have not been able to get their head around the sonic shifts and differences between the two albums.

1990

In the U.S., the single Love and Anger has considerable college and alternative-market success, and its accompanying video is aired often by MTV. Unfortunately Kate's new U.S. label, Columbia Records, fails to offer more than nominal support for the album, and as a result its phenomenal commercial potential--indicated in dozens of alternative rock charts throughout the nation--is completely wasted, and the album never becomes known to the general record-buying public. It is unable to crack the top forty, but it does have a remarkable longevity, remaining in the Billboard Top 200 for a total of six full months. A golden opportunity has been squandered by Columbia.

In response to the unusual college interest, in January Kate finally does make a brief trip to New York in support of the album, but she does not schedule nearly as many interviews as she had done in 1985, and she makes no personal appearances. As a result, she is seen only extremely briefly on U.S. national news, and in five or six ten-second (that's right, ten-second!) interview "sound-bites" on MTV in January and February. (She also gives a twenty-minute phone-in interview, in which a large number of radio disc jockeys joined in for a conference call and ask a large number of too-familiar questions.).

That interesting life Love and Anger had in the U.S. and the fact The Sensual World could have been a huge album there. Maybe Bush was a little fatigued with the promotion she did for Hounds of Love. It would be another four years until she put out The Red Shoes. I am covering that for a run of features at the moment. Regardless, you can see what Bush endured and undertook after Hounds of Love and before. Now seen as one of her masterpieces, The Sensual World turns thirty-four on 17th October. If you are someone who has not listened to it in a while, I think you will get a lot out of it. A rich album that has so many wonderful songs, carve some time out to investigate and absorb…

KATE Bush’s 1989 gem.

FEATURE: Joni Mitchell at Eighty: A Case of You: The Artists She Has Inspired

FEATURE:

 

 

Joni Mitchell at Eighty

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell in 2015/PHOTO CREDIT: Norman Jean Roy for New York Magazine

A Case of You: The Artists She Has Inspired

_________

I will talk more about her legacy…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell in New York, November 1968. This image was from a photo shoot for Vogue/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Robinson/Getty Images

and influence on culture closer to her eightieth birthday on 7th November. I am talking about Joni Mitchell. The Alberta-born icon has had a massive effect on so many artists. I am going to end with a playlist featuring songs from many of the artists she has impacted. In future features, I will highlight her essential albums. Also, there have been some nice reissues and new bits from Joni Mitchell. I am not sure whether we will get another studio album from Mitchell, though there are archived songs being put out that we have not heard:

“Joni has unveiled a never-before-heard song “Like Veils Said Lorraine” today from the forthcoming Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975). Mitchell wrote this song and recorded it as a demo in late 1971/early 1972 at A&M Studios in Hollywood, CA. She explains that this song was a piece of dialogue that happened with the real-estate woman who showed her properties in British Columbia. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is set for release on October 6, 2023 via Rhino. Listen here”.

For the diehard Joni Mitchell fans out there, I would recommend the newly-released Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972–1975). In addition to live recordings, we also get alternate versions from sessions from For the Roses, Court and Spark, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Also released from the archives was Blue 50: Demos, Outtakes and Live Tracks From Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 2. Throw into the mix this beauty, At Newport, and we get some contemporary live material from the queen:

“Angels of Newport, let’s make history together,” [Brandi Carlile] said with growing emotion. “Hold nothing back in this moment and please welcome back to the Newport stage for the first time since 1969 . . . Joni Mitchell!”

Mitchell emerged from the side of the stage, swaying smoothly, in fine summer-style with beret and sunglasses. Her good-natured mood instantly set the tone. This performance would be an intimate gathering of friends, not unlike the Joni Jams she’d been hosting in her own living room over the last few years of recovery. Smiling broadly, Mitchell took her on-stage seat alongside Carlile and began the extraordinary performance that was on nobody’s bingo card. Within minutes, the news had rocketed around the globe. Mitchell was back, sparkling with enthusiasm, delivering a tender and passionate set of 13 songs, ending with a joyful sing-along of “The Circle Game.” -Excerpt from the liner notes written by Cameron Crowe”.

It is brilliant that Mitchell is still with us and performing. There was a moment when that might not be the case. She released her seventeenth and last album of original songs, Shine, in 2007. She would give the odd interview and appearances afterwards. The rupture of a brain aneurysm in 2015 led to a long period of recovery and therapy. Mitchell returned to public appearances in 2021, where she accepted several awards in person, including a Kennedy Center Honor in 2021. She performed live for the first time in nine years, with an unannounced appearance the Newport Folk Festival in June 2022. Mitchell performed a headlining show in June 2023 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State. To celebrate her legacy and the fact she turns eighty in November, I am going to highlight the artists inspired by her. First, earlier this month, American Songwriter highlighted five albums where one can hear and feel Joni Mitchell’s legacy and influence:

 “1. Debut – Björk

It’s difficult to find a point of reference for Björk. The Iceland native is so singular in the music scene, she feels like she appeared out of thin air, rather than was formed through her listening habits like the rest of the music community. Nevertheless, Björk often mentions Mitchell when asked who her influences are.

“I really love Joni Mitchell,” she told Pitchfork in 2015. “I think it was that accidental thing in Iceland, where the wrong albums arrive to shore because I was obsessed with Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and Hejira as a teenager. I hear much more of her in those albums. She almost made her own type of music style with those, it’s more a woman’s world.”

Björk could certainly be categorized as someone who makes her own music style as well. Though nof one of her albums lives exactly in the same world as Mitchell’s, you can glean how the folk icon inspired many songs on her album Debut—particularly “Aeroplane.” On the track, Björk deals in acrobatic vocal melodies and meditative songwriting like Mitchell. She also colors the song with jazz elements that are reminiscent of Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

 2. folklore – Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift has made her love of Mitchell known on a number of occasions. She was even rumored to play Mitchell in a biopic at one point in time.

“She wrote it about her deepest pains and most haunting demons,” Swift once told Rolling Stone of “River” and the song’s accompanying album. “I think [Blue] is my favorite because it explores somebody’s soul so deeply.”

It’s easy to see where Mitchell has inspired the “Anti-Hero” singer, especially when it comes to her 2020 album folklore. As evident by the title, Swift leans heavily into folky melodies on that record. Pair that sonic flavor with the pensive and narrative lyrics Swift has no trouble churning out and you’ve got a deeply Mitchell-esque project.

 3. Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan

Mitchell hasn’t just inspired younger artists; she is also a calling card for artists from her own era.

Bob Dylan is one of the most celebrated songwriters of all time and even he heralds Mitchell as an inspiration. Dylan once summed up his admiration for his fellow folky with trademark nonchalance: “Joni’s got a strange sense of rhythm that’s all her own.”

His song “Tangled Up in Blue” has long been thought to have been inspired by Mitchell’s Blue. The track acted as the opener for Dylan’s 1975 album Blood on the Tracks.

 4. Little Voice – Sara Bareilles

“Fiona Apple and Joni Mitchell are two of my most favorite role models,” Bareilles once said. “As you can tell by that, I’m a junkie for great lyrics.”

Bareilles’ focus on crafting great lyrics is evident in many of her songs. Pull a Bareilles song out of a hat and there is a 50 percent chance you might be crying by the end of it. If there’s anything the California native knows how to do it is inspire emotion—a skill Mitchell is also adept at.

Certain songs on her 2007 album Little Voice could draw comparisons to Mitchell’s smoky, jazz-steeped album Both Sides Now—particularly “Gravity.”

The song acted as the third and final single from the record and sees Bareilles strip things down to their bare bones. Largely accompanied by just a piano, Bareilles lets her lyrics take center stage.

 5. Harry Styles – Harry Styles

Harry Styles is among the few artists that can boast quality time spent with the icon herself.

“I did go to her house for a Christmas carol sing-along one time,” Styles revealed to Youtube personality Nardwuar in 2022. “I wasn’t gonna sing anything, and then Brandi [Carlile] volunteered me to sing ‘River,’ which was one of the more nerve-wracking moments in my life…but it was pretty special.”

Styles, a long-time fan of Mitchell, went so far as to name his latest record after one of her songs, “Harry’s House/Centerpiece.” Though that album makes irrefutable nods to Mitchell, it’s actually his debut album that follows in her footsteps sonically.

There are a few acoustic guitar-driven ballads throughout the self-titled record that instantly recall Mitchell’s ’70s catalog—notably, “Ever Since New York” and “Sweet Creature”.

Prior to getting to that playlist, I want to bring in AllMusic’s biography of the legendary and peerless Joni Mitchell. If you want to get together a Joni Mitchell reading collection, here is a good place to go. There have been some good interviews and live performances though, to my mind, there has not been an authoritative and detailed documentary about her – not for many a year at least! I hope that comes. Also, I wonder whether we’ll ever get a Joni Mitchell biopic. That said, Mitchell has been working on something with Cameron Crowe, so that may take the form of a drama scored by her music:

“A folk singer with a poet's spirit, Joni Mitchell is among music history's most poignant and influential songwriters. A veteran of the '60s folk circuit, Mitchell first came to prominence as a songwriter, composing oft-covered tunes of the era "Chelsea Morning," "The Circle Game," and "Both Sides Now." By the time Judy Collins brought the latter into the charts in 1968, Mitchell had released her David Crosby-produced solo debut, Song to a Seagull. Mitchell became part of Los Angeles' folk-rock scene, but worked from a different compositional aesthetic, utilizing alternate guitar tunings and writing from a stark personal perspective. These qualities shone on Clouds, a self-produced 1969 LP that won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance, setting the stage for her 1971 masterpiece Blue, an album that has served as the cornerstone of introspective singer/songwriter music since the '70s. Mitchell expanded her horizons quickly, working with a collective of L.A. studio musicians on the smooth and pop-minded Court and Spark, the 1974 album that turned into her commercial breakthrough thanks to the Top Ten single "Help Me" and its sequel "Free Man in Paris." From there, she embraced jazz fusion and worldbeat, collaborating with players like Joe Sample and Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius on such revered albums as The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira. Mitchell moved to Geffen in the early '80s where she reckoned with new wave before returning to her impressionistic folk-pop roots for 1994's Turbulent Indigo, which earned her a Grammy Award for Pop Album of the Year. Almost ten years separated 1998's Taming the Tiger and 2007's Shine, her last two studio albums of original material -- but her legacy not only loomed large, it grew as listeners and artists caught up to the innovations she pioneered throughout her career.

Born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort McLeod, Alberta, Canada, on November 7, 1943, she was stricken with polio at the age of nine; while recovering in a children's hospital, she began her performing career by singing to the other patients. After teaching herself to play guitar with the aid of a Pete Seeger instruction book, she went off to art college and became a fixture on the folk music scene around Alberta. After relocating to Toronto, she married folksinger Chuck Mitchell in 1965, and began performing under the name Joni Mitchell.

A year later, the couple moved to Detroit, Michigan, but they separated soon after; Joni remained in the Motor City, however, and won significant press acclaim for her burgeoning songwriting skills and smoky, distinctive vocals, leading to a string of high-profile performances in New York City. There she became a cause célèbre among the media and other performers. After she signed to Reprise in 1967, David Crosby offered to produce her debut record, a self-titled acoustic effort that appeared the following year. Her songs also found great success with other singers: in 1968, Judy Collins scored a major hit with the Mitchell-penned "Both Sides Now," while Fairport Convention covered "Eastern Rain" and Tom Rush recorded "The Circle Game."

Thanks to all of the outside exposure, Mitchell began to earn a strong cult following; her 1969 sophomore effort, Clouds, reached the Top 40, while 1970's Ladies of the Canyon sold even better on the strength of the single "Big Yellow Taxi." It also included her anthemic composition "Woodstock," a major hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Still, the commercial and critical approval awarded her landmark 1971 record Blue was unprecedented: a luminous, starkly confessional set written primarily during a European vacation, the album firmly established Mitchell as one of pop music's most remarkable and insightful talents.

Predictably, she turned away from Blue's incandescent folk with 1972's For the Roses, the first of the many major stylistic turns she would take over the course of her daring career. Backed by rock-jazz performer Tom Scott, Mitchell's music began moving into more pop-oriented territory, a change typified by the single "You Turn Me On (I'm a Radio)," her first significant hit. The follow-up, 1974's classic Court and Spark, was her most commercially successful outing; a sparkling, jazz-accented set, it reached the number two spot on the U.S. album charts and launched three hit singles -- "Help Me," "Free Man in Paris," and "Raised on Robbery."

After the 1974 live collection Miles of Aisles, Mitchell emerged in 1975 with The Hissing of Summer Lawns, a bold, almost avant-garde record that housed her increasingly complex songs in experimental, jazz-inspired settings. "The Jungle Line" introduced the rhythms of African Burundi drums, placing her far ahead of the pop world's mid-'80s fascination with world music. 1976's Hejira, recorded with Weather Report bassist Jaco Pastorius, smoothed out the music's more difficult edges while employing minimalist techniques. Mitchell later performed the album's first single, "Coyote," at the Band's Last Waltz concert that Thanksgiving.

Her next effort, 1977's two-record set Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, was another ambitious move, a collection of long, largely improvisational pieces recorded with jazz players Larry Carlton and Wayne Shorter, Chaka Khan, and a battery of Latin percussionists. Shortly after the record's release, Mitchell was contacted by the legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus, who invited her to work with him on a musical interpretation of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. Mingus, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, sketched out a series of melodies to which Mitchell added lyrics; however, Mingus died on January 5, 1979, before the record was completed. After Mitchell finished their collaboration on her own, she recorded the songs under the title Mingus, which was released the summer after the jazz titan's passing.

Following her second live collection, 1980's Shadows and Light, Mitchell returned to pop territory for 1982's Wild Things Run Fast. The first single, a cover of the Elvis Presley hit "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care," became her first chart single in eight years. Shortly after the album's release, she married bassist/sound engineer Larry Klein, who became a frequent collaborator on much of her subsequent material, including 1985's synth-driven Dog Eat Dog, co-produced by Thomas Dolby. Mitchell's move into electronics continued with 1988's Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, featuring guests Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, and Billy Idol.

Mitchell returned to her roots with 1991's Night Ride Home, a spare, stripped-down collection spotlighting little more than her voice and acoustic guitar. Prior to recording 1994's Turbulent Indigo, she and Klein separated, although he still co-produced the record, which was her most acclaimed work in years. In 1996, she compiled a pair of anthologies, Hits and Misses, which collected Mitchell's chart successes as well as underappreciated favorites. A new studio album, Taming the Tiger, followed in 1998. Both Sides Now, a collection of standards, followed in early 2000.

Two years later, she resurfaced with the double-disc release Travelogue. She announced in October 2002 that this would be her last album ever, as she'd grown tired of the music industry and intended to retire. She did take a break from recording for a few years, but in 2006 she began working on a set of songs that became the 2007 album Shine. Mitchell stepped away from music again in 2009 to focus on health issues.

In 2014, Mitchell helped compile her first box-set anthology, Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced, which featured remastered versions of 53 songs from her back catalog, all dealing with some aspect of love and relationships. A series of releases chronologically charting her evolution with previously unreleased recordings kicked off in October 2020 with Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967). The expansive collection included dozens of songs from home demos, live shows, and radio broadcasts that hadn't been publicly shared up until that point. Exactly a year later, the archival series continued with Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968–1971). This volume of the series focused on the years surrounding Mitchell's first four solo albums for the Reprise label, again including a wealth of unreleased home demos and live material, along with studio outtakes from sessions for classic albums like 1969's Clouds and 1971's incomparable Blue. An unannounced show at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival marked Mitchell's first live appearance in nine years, and the hit-heavy set was released a year later as 2023's Joni Mitchell at Newport. Joining her for the performance were backing vocalists Wynonna Judd, Brandi Carlile, Shooter Jennings, and others, along with notable backing musicians like Blake Mills and Marcus Mumford. The performance gave Mitchell the bug, and subsequent live shows (dubbed "Joni Jams" from that point forward) followed”.

Prior to the magnificent Joni Mitchell turning eighty on 7th November, I will do at least a couple of other features about her. Maybe one that collates the best books to buy. Something relating to her live performances. How she has inspired a generation of female songwriters, perhaps. Below is a playlist of songs from artists who would definitely see Joni Mitchell…

AS a big influence.

FEATURE: Aspect: Ratio: Celebrating the Great and Pioneering Female Writers and Directors of Film in 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

Aspect: Ratio

IN THIS PHOTO: Celine Song’s debut film, Past Lives, is one of the most praised and accomplished of this year/PHOTO CREDIT: JJ Geiger

Celebrating the Great and Pioneering Female Writers and Directors of Film in 2023

_________

WE will get to a day…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Margot Robbie during a Vogue (May 2023) interview in promotion of Barbie/PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green

when there we do not have to highlight female film writers and directors when they do something extraordinary. Of course, their work deserves that. What I mean is that there is this culture where half the films made are by women. That all their extraordinary work is taken as red. Never will we have to tackle award ceremonies for not including enough women (or any at all) in categories that normally are dominated by men. That more women are on front of film magazine covers. Articles written about how they are role models. I think things are slowly changing in that respect – though it is clear there is still some way to go before there is parity and they are getting their full dues. The same is true in many industries. Music, for example, is a classic one. Progress is often quite slow because so many of the highest positions that yield the most influence and power are occupied by men. That mentality that they don’t see things as broken, so why change them?! Again, things are starting to move in the right direction. You only need to look at the cinema this year to see that some of the most mesmeric and important films have been made by women. Not to ignore incredible actresses like Margot Robbie – whose starring role as Barbie, in my mind, is award-worthy and career-best; so captivating and nuanced was her performance -; I wanted to spotlight some amazing films and truly awe-inspiring female directors and writers.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kelly Fremon Craig directed and wrote the screenplay for the adaptation of the Judy Blum middle-grade novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret/PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Hawley/Lionsgate

I think that the sheer richness and variety of films helmed or written by women have been spectacular. I am going to pay special attention to women who, to my mind, have directed the two best films of the year. Special mention needs to go to Kelly Fremon Craig and her phenomenal adaptation of the 1970 Judy Blume novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. It has won praise across the board. From the legendary Mark Kermode’s take, to a five-star rave from Empire,  the phenomenal Kelly Fremon Craig, whose impressive C.V. also features around terrific coming-of-age entry, 2016’s The Edge of Seventeen, is someone we need to watch closely. She is a singular and astonishing talent with a distinct and captivating voice and style. There have been quite a few wonderful comedies helmed by women. Joy Ride, directed by Adele Lim, with a screenplay by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao is a rare case of a comedy being able to match adult humour, raunch and X-rated fun with heart, real wit and laugh-out-loud moments aplenty! Again, these are talents you will be hearing a lot more from. It is a film that comes highly recommended. Upcoming films like the Emerald Fennell-helmed Saltburn (out in November) is one to watch closely. Already out is You Hurt My Feelings. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, is another remarkable film that has won widespread praise.  A new film that I knew would get applause and attention is Bottoms. Written by Emma Seligman (who is its director) and Rachel Sennott (who co-stars), it seems that female talent is responsible for some of the best and most interesting comedy of this year.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Rye Lane director, Raine Allen-Milller/PHOTO CREDIT: Julia Kennedy @ A&R Agency

It is not just high school comedies, those with a crazier spirit and a general fast-paced and strange tone. More grounded comedies with plenty of heart are also coming from incredible women. British film Rye Lane is directed by Raine Allen-Miller. Undoubtably one of this year’s best films, Allen-Miller is such an accomplished and interesting director who is adept at weaving comedy and heart seamlessly. A.V. Rockwell’s - A Thousand and One  - which she wrote and directed – is astonishing! This is what Empire wrote for their review:

“Before you see a single frame in A Thousand And One, you hear the sounds of the New York City neighbourhood the film takes place in. It’s a smartly deployed recurring gambit that helps establish a sense of time and place in A.V. Rockwell’s layered and affecting feature debut, and it proves to be an effective backdrop for a rich story of Black motherhood, sacrifice, and community. 

The inciting kidnapping might have you thinking this is a duo-on-the-lam story, but Rockwell’s smarter, more unconventional approach yields impressive results. Patient storytelling allows her to take in the rapidly gentrifying Harlem neighbourhood that the bulk of the film takes place in, and how it impacts people of colour in the community. The socio-political context is at first deftly woven in – audio of former NYC Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg’s controversial policies is heard at one point – and then explicitly slammed in our faces in a standout scene with Inez’s landlord trying to force them out of their apartment. Both approaches are effective, all aided by Gary Gunn’s ethereal, '90s R&B influenced score, and Eric Yue's lush cinematography.

At almost every turn, Teyona Taylor unveils new capabilities.

It’s a perfect foundation for a Moonlight-esque triptych of impressive performances from Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross, as Terry goes from kidulthood to adulthood. Each actor is so emotionally in sync with the character that the time jumps are never jarring. Although the backbone of the film is on his perfectly imperfect dynamic with Inez and father figure Lucky (Will Catlett, in a nicely nuanced turn), each version of Terry is allowed ample time to showcase his complexities. A teenage Terry’s courtship of a young girl and the misogynoir Inez calls him on is especially playful and enlightening, if not fully mined”.

Other films, such as Nida Manzoor’s Polite Society has also been received with applause and acclaim. There are two films, very different to one another, that are helmed by amazingly inspirational women. My top two films of the year, one has broken box office record, whilst the other has created a quieter and less pink storm! Before spotlighting them – reviews and interviews with their directors -, a special mention goes to another terrific comedy, Theatre Camp, co-directed and co-written (and co-starring) by Molly Gordon. British director Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper (which she also wrote) is one of this year’s most rewarding and memorable films.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Nida Manzoor on the set of Polite Society/PHOTO CREDIT: Entertainment Pictures/Alamy

There are two particular films that have resounded and resonated with critics and audiences. Perhaps for different reasons. I am going to start with the best film – in my view – of the year. Greta Gerwig co-wrote (with Noah Baumbach) and directed Barbie. I have written a few features about the film. From this one here, to that one there, to that one, over to this one, I had nothing but love for this blockbuster. I will get to an interview with her. Kudos to the entire cast. Ryan Gosling as Ken is hilarious and phenomenal. I think Margot Robbie is the standout. Her turn as Barbie (or ‘Stereotypical Barbie’ to be precise) is full of humour and emotion. She can be vacuous and aimlessly cheery. Living in Barbie Land, everything is perfect and as it should be. When entering the horrors of the Real World, she sheds tears and experiences emotions she has not experienced before. Such a commanding and standout performance, I especially adore her interactions with Rhea Perlman. Playing Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, there is this touching and tear-inducing moment where Barbie voices her fears and doubts. Struggling with the realities of the real world she has been in and the fantasy one she is used to, there is such depth and nuance ion Robbie’s performance. We all know that Barbie broke box office records. Greta Gerwig became the first female director to direct a film that has surpassed a billion dollars at the box office. From her more Indie background, she helmed brilliant Oscar-nominated films Lady Bird (2018) and Little Women (2019; both U.K. release years). Even though the films had budgets of up to and around $40 million, they made massive profits at the box office! Barbie’s budget is around $128–145 million, and it has since gone on to make $1.419 billion. It is a huge leap in budget and scope. The Guardian were especially obsessed with Barbie. Giving it some muted applause, they seemed determined to undermine it and its director. One feature asked if the film has killed the Indie director. Another bemoaned the fact that a slew of toy films and Barbie offshoots and imitators that will come about. One, bafflingly, talked about rampant product placement in a film where one was not exactly distracted by the names of cars, sunglasses brands and commercialism away from the fact that, as it is about Barbie, Mattel and the toy is going to be pretty evident and exposed.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Greta Gerwig in 2017/PHOTO CREDIT: Victor Demarchelier for Interview Magazine

They also felt that the film was muddled in its feminist take. There were other pieces about Barbie’s feminism, and how it is perhaps quite complex and hard in a film where Barbie’s legacy is quite difficult. I think that Barbie, its success and Greta Gerwig’s incredible film is feminist and has inspired great debate and discussion. She will doubtless inspire many female filmmakers and has broken records for women. Despite some sniffy and needlessly critical reviews, most critics gave it a hugely warm reaction. I think it is a perfect film! I will move on the second 2023-best film soon. Before that, I wanted to drop in W Magazine’s interview that was published on the day Barbie was released in cinemas (21st July).

“Barbies are cool again, thanks to Greta Gerwig’s soulful and sneakily emotional Barbie, one of this summer’s biggest cinematic events alongside the atomic bomb movie; though the only one of its kind dressed in happy heaps of magenta.

Or cool again is the wrong phrasing perhaps. Relatable for the first time feels closer to an accurate reading of this brilliant Barbie, starring an enchanting Margot Robbie as the stereotypical blonde (her fellow Barbies are portrayed by the likes of Issa Rae, Sharon Rooney, Kate McKinnon, Alexandra Shipp and Hari Nef, among others) and a hilarious Ryan Gosling, as Barbie’s generically beachy boy-toy Ken. After all, this is the first time in popular film when a wise writer gave the emptily pretty and unrealistically proportioned doll, once deemed antifeminist for making young girls feel bad about themselves, a grounded coming-of-age in the real world where women have flat feet and cellulite. And it certainly feels like the first time in a long time we’ve been made to reconsider all the ways that the Barbie doll, maybe—just maybe—wasn’t all that anti-woman.

Joining W over Zoom a few days before the theatrical opening of her latest film—which opened to the biggest box office of the year, Barbie director and co-writer Gerwig reflects on the emotions these toys stir: “I find that there's just such beautiful absurdity in the making of dolls, of inanimate objects. We're so scientifically advanced, we're talking to each other on machines. We're very knowledgeable about the world and the universe. And at the same time, we still make dolls and we still feel things about them, which feels truer [to who we are], but less advanced than we consider ourselves to be.”

Below, Gerwig discusses her personal attachment to Barbies, her directing style, making personal films in any budget and how her love of Shakespeare guided Barbie.

What are your earliest memories of playing with Barbie dolls?

Barbie was somewhat a forbidden fruit for me when I was a girl, because my mom did not like Barbie for all the reasons that someone wouldn't like Barbie. But I got a lot of Barbies as hand-me-downs from girls who lived in my neighborhood, with the haircuts and the missing shoes and mismatched outfits.

I loved Barbies when I was young, but I distinctly recall a phase of rejecting them because I wanted to be “cool” and “likable.” Same goes for the color pink. Was reclaiming these “girly” elements one of your starting points?

One thing we really did think deeply about with the set and costume design was exactly that: not diminishing a little girl that just loves the brightness and the sparkles and the too-muchness. Barbie-ism is maximalist. When eight-year-old girls play dress up, they put on everything. When I was a little girl, I loved Lisa Frank. I thought her art was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Then as you get older, you say, "No, I have adult taste, and I don't need sparkle dolphins." But there is still someone in you that loves a sparkle dolphin. You just have to let them out and play a little bit.

That maximalism comes out tastefully in your movie. How did you marry that with the more emotional and intimate things you wanted to touch on?

In no way am I comparing myself to this person—so please don't think that I'm doing that, that would be mortifying—but I always think about the architecture of what we have in this film and the ontology of Barbie [in relation to] what I love so much about Shakespeare's comedies. Stay with me. I'm not saying I'm Shakespeare. But I do think Shakespeare was a maximalist. There wasn't anything that was too far or too crazy that couldn't be worked through, and then there’d be something in the middle that felt quite human. I was thinking about it in those terms: a heightened theatricality that allows you to deal with big ideas in the midst of anarchic play.

IN THIS PHOTO: Margot Robbie, Ana Cruz Kayne, Greta Gerwig and Hari Nef on the set of Barbie/PHOTO CREDIT: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.

During Barbie, I found myself thinking about a moment in Little Women when Jo has an emotional outburst: “Women: they have souls, and they have ambition, as well as beauty.” Did you think of these two films in close proximity?

Yes, definitely. In some ways, all the movies I've co-written, written and directed are all talking to each other. It is almost a mystery to me when I'm in the middle of it. And then when I step back, I think, "Oh, you continue to be interested in women. This is something you're fascinated by." That ache of contradictions, of never being able to totally bridge that gap between adulthood and childhood, is present in this movie, too. It's this overflowing sense of joy, and then it's also, "I can never get back there."

Well, I cried during that scene in Little Women. And I cried during America Ferrera’s monologue about womanhood in Barbie. The latter took me by surprise. I noticed that my face was wet all of a sudden.

Oh, that's so beautiful. In Little Women, [it just comes] from everything inside you, and from the book. But Barbie is a bit of a sneak attack.

I found myself feeling protective of the toy that I once loved. In an interview we did for 20th Century Women, you said when you read a character and feel protective of her, that’s when you know you want to play her. Does the same apply to writing and directing?

I think you're spot on. I have realized I don't really write villains. Everybody in my films exists somewhere in the messy middle, and I feel empathy for them in what they are. Once the actors take it on, it adds another layer. I want to give them some sort of grace I feel we all deserve, but can't give ourselves.

Do you feel having a major acting career and speaking “actor” fluently make you a better actor's director?

I think there's an advantage to being an actor who’s directing. I know how vulnerable and how scary it feels. Margot said, “Just so you know, the week before we start shooting, I'm going to doubt that I can ever do this,” And I was like, “I totally know that feeling. You go ahead and have that feeling.” And she was like, “Once we're going, I'll feel more like, ‘Okay, now I'm in it. I know how to do it.’” I deeply empathize with that and try to figure out how to make them feel safe.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig on the set of Barbie/PHOTO CREDIT: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.

In another interview we did, this time for Lady Bird, you talked about why it took you so long to direct solo. “Courage doesn’t grow overnight” is something you’ve mentioned. In going from a career in the indies to a big studio scale, have you felt a similar reluctance?

Prior to doing it, I thought, “Well, once I've done it, then I'll feel like, ‘Yes, I'm a director.’” And then I didn't really have that feeling. I had all of the same terrors going into the second one. And I thought, “Well, but after the second one, then I'll surely feel I’m a director.” And then that feeling never came, and I realized, I don't think it's coming. You feel like a beginner to whatever project you're on. My experience on the first movie was, I'm going to have to do it before I feel like I can, because if I wait to feel like I can, I'm never going to do it.

I sometimes wonder if that ‘any day now’ feeling is a feminine one, or if men feel like that too.

I know a lot of male filmmakers, and I think they have it too. You would think that at a certain point they don't have that feeling. But every time, you have a sense of vertigo.

Mattel is now developing different toy and IP-driven projects. On the one hand, it’s not your responsibility to think or worry about that. On the other, do you think about whether Barbie might have unleashed something Disney-like into the world?

I don't really know how to answer that in a larger sense. The thing that felt so peculiar and wonderful about this movie was that it felt like I got to make something deeply personal, attached to this thing that is completely impersonal. It was an opportunity to do these things that nod to my favorite soundstage musical; these days, nobody's really like, “Oh, could you hire a bunch of miniature artists and scenic painters and just go to town?” You have to find the right thing to realize that. So I got to live out a personal fantasy of something.

I went to a Catholic high school. There was creativity, but there were also extremely clear boundaries of what we were meant to do. You could choreograph a dance in liturgy, or you could write a sketch comedy for the pep rallies. It wasn't necessarily sanctioned, but you could sneak it in. It made you feel like you were getting away with something, which was also fun. That has always made me feel like there's not such a strong demarcation about, "Here's real art over here and here's not real art over here." It’s wherever you make it, wherever they'll let you go, wherever there's any kind of space or time. I think art can come up in the most unlikely places.

In terms of my own future, I definitely want the skill set to be able to tell stories of different sizes. I want to be able to make tiny movies, big movies, and everything in between. It just takes so long to make any given one. That’s the only thing I feel limited by. You only get to make so many”.

With film references to everything from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb to The Wizard of Oz to The Matrix to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there is so much detail,  variation and layers in the phenomenal Barbie. I think a book will be written about it. The concept and coming together. The build-up and the fact it was pitched against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The success and reaction. Maybe a documentary. The fact it is a feminist film and so many people missed so much of it. Not really paying full attention! I agree there are complexities and not everything will be loved by all, yet I think it is a phenomenon. One that is sensationally and miraculously brought to life in such a vivid and flawless way by Greta Gerwig. At just forty, she is a director who is going to go on to make even more history and inspire generations of women! Stepping from playwriting to filmmaking, the extraordinary Celine Song brought us Past Lives in June (that is the U.S. release month). I don’t think there will be a more celebrated and truly moving film released all year. I will finish with an interview from Celine Song. First, among the five-star reviews, this is what The Guardian said in theirs:

“This heart-meltingly romantic and sad movie from Korean-Canadian dramatist and film-maker Celine Song left me wrung out and empty and weirdly euphoric, as if I’d lived through an 18-month affair in the course of an hour and three-quarters. How extraordinary to think that this is Song’s feature debut. It’s delicate, sophisticated and yet also somehow simple, direct, even verging on the cheesy. Past Lives has been compared to the movies of Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig; all true, but I also found myself remembering the wrenching final moments of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, with Tony Leung murmuring his pain into a stone hollow in Angkor Wat and – yes – the gooey genius of Dean Friedman’s plaintive 1978 chart hit Lucky Stars.

This is a story of lost love and childhood crush,the painful and dangerous access to the past given by digital media; the roads not taken, the lives not led, the futile luxury of regret. And it’s a movie that speaks to the migrant experience and the way this creates lifelong alternative realities in the mind: the self that could have stayed behind in the old country, versus the one that went abroad for a new future. In this it is similar to the frantic, Oscar-winning multiverse comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, though I think better and truer.

We start with a static shot of three adults, drinking uncomfortably in a New York bar: two are Korean, one is white American. A narrative voice, perhaps representing that of the audience or the film-maker, teasingly speculates as to who these people are. Flashbacks supply the answer: the first takes us to sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s in Seoul, where a 12-year-old girl, Na-young (Seung Ah-moon), is walking home after school with a 12-year-old boy, Hae-sung (Seung Min-yim). They are sweethearts, though the relationship is clouded by competition, and the question of which of them will come first in the class. Na-young’s mother actually sets up a kind of romantic “play date” between the two, which fatally gives poor Hae-sung the impression that they are meant to be together, and his heart is broken when Na-young casually announces in class (not even directly to him) that her family is emigrating to North America.

The next section shows the two in their 20s: Na-young (played by Greta Lee) has anglicised her name to Nora and is now a budding literary star in New York. Poor, humble Hae-sung (Teo Yoo) is trudging through his military service back in Seoul and studying engineering. The two connect via Facebook and then Skype, and the beaming excitement of their conversations will have you on the edge of your seat. The movie screen is flooded with their happiness and a single unasked question: should they be together? Or is that illusory? Are they both romanticising the purity of their childhood friendship? A later section in New York has Na-young fully established in her prestigious career. Hae-sung, after a dismally failed relationship, finally comes to New York and meets Na-young and her husband, Arthur, (John Magaro), a promising novelist.

Lee’s brilliant code-switching between her Korean identity with Hae-sung and her American identity with Arthur is gripping, as is Magaro’s wary, pained questioning, as Arthur suspects (justifiably) that she is deeply in love with their Korean visitor. And as writers, Arthur and Na-young can see how Hae-sung, though a provincial country mouse compared to them, is actually incomparably more compelling and magnificent: a handsome, dignified, modest, heartbroken romantic hero who has sacrificed everything in his life for this distant real love.

Na-young/Nora talks about the Korean concept of “in-yun”, the karmic bringing together of people who were lovers in past lives. This wonderful film suggests a secular, 21st-century version: the past lives of Na-young and Hae-sung are their childhoods, preserved and exalted in their memory and by modern communications. Past Lives is a glorious date movie, and a movie for every occasion, too. As ever with films like this, there is an auxiliary pleasure in wondering how much of her own past life Song has used. It’s a must-see”.

I want to come to a great interview that was published by The Hollywood Reporter in July. They spoke with Celine Song about Past Lives, and how she fell in love with filmmaking. It seems that her former life in theatre is not one she is in a hurry to return to:

"Judging from the strong audience reactions here in Karlovy Vary and at other festivals, Past Lives is one of those personal stories with universal appeal. Did you set out with that goal in mind?

My professor once said that if you make something that you yourself are so excited and enthusiastic about or something that you love yourself so much, that you believe in and you think is true, because you’re a person and not an alien, there are going to be other people who also connect to it as fellow humans. And I think that’s ultimately the thing that guides me through everything that I make. At the end of the day, I know that my standard for what is bullshit and what is true is going to be higher when it comes to the things that I make. There’s no critic who could be better at knowing when I’m bullshitting. So, in that sense, the only thing that I’m pursuing is something that I can be interested in or I can think is honest. Once you do that, you just hope that other people also see that and see that it’s not just a story of one person, but it’s also a story that can exist in their own lives, too. That’s what I can do as an artist.

How much of the story is based on your own real experience or the experiences of others?

There’s a bar in the East Village that I ended up in because I was living around there. And I was sitting there with my childhood sweetheart who flew in from Korea, now he is a friend, who only really speaks Korean, and my American husband who only really speaks English. And I was sitting there trying to translate these two guys trying to communicate, and I felt like something really special was going on. I was sort of becoming a bridge or a portal between these two men and also, in some ways, these two worlds of language and culture. Something about that moment really sparked something, and then it made me really feel like maybe this could be a movie. So it started from a pretty real thing that happened to me. But then, of course, in making the movie, it comes from a subjective experience that sparks this whole story into an object, which is a script, and then from there, the movie.

Since I used to live in New York, I must ask you which bar in the East Village you went to?

Please Don’t Tell. (The writer says: “I know it!”) You know about it!? With the phone booth. But the scene is actually shot at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on 8th Street. You may have just walked by it, it looks like nothing from the outside.

The opening scene in that bar shows the three main characters sitting in the bar and someone is wondering about their relationship to each other, which is the kind of conversation I have had with friends before. How do you craft dialogue that feels so natural and authentic?

I think that comes from theater. I worked in theater for a long time. It’s really the only thing in theater you can rely on. Because in theater, you don’t really have the set design, there’s nothing to really help you. All you have is dialogue and actors. So to me, I came in as a veteran, I knew how to do that.

There are scenes where you can really feel the awkwardness, for example, in the scene when the two men meet for the first time. How did you achieve that as a director?

I’m not going to do any fireworks or do some VFX or something to improve what’s going on in the actors’ faces. What that means is the whole movie has to live in the actors’ faces. So there are a couple of things that I did.

I kept the two male actors apart in the preparation of the movie until we shot that scene where the two of them see each other for the first time. That required a little bit of logistics, but the two guys were apart. And also, I asked Greta, who plays Nora, in her rehearsals with each guy to tell the guy that she was having a rehearsal with the other guy. So they were both forming ideas of who the other guy is and created expectations for what that is. And then of course, when they meet for the first time, we were rolling. Because we wanted to be rolling when they met for the first time — the actors as well as the characters. And when that happened, that shot is in the movie, the first shot of them looking at each other is in the movie. And it was amazing because they could just feel all their expectations collapse, right? But also, they had to take each other in and try to understand. Because it’s also so much about what’s our idea of another person. I’m sure you’ve seen photos of me before. And, of course, meeting me in person is a completely different thing in a way.

This also matters in the movie because it is a movie about extraordinary hellos and extraordinary goodbyes. I don’t think every movie needs to play games like that. But I think this movie did because it was just going to be helpful for the actors to craft the really special hellos and really special goodbyes.

The other thing I did is I actually didn’t let Teo (Yoo) and Greta (Lee), Hae Sung and Greta, touch each other until they meet each other for the first time in the film. They were rehearsing, so they knew each other, but when they actually hug, the actual heat, the physical and everything, it’s just made tangible, it’s made something that you can touch. So I think that is something that you’re trying to craft partly because I don’t have fireworks going off. All you can do is get to see what’s happening in their faces and sometimes that’s going to be enough.

After watching the film, I thought a lot about identity and who we are and can become and what influences and changes us. For example, I grew up in Austria with a Hungarian father and then moved to New York and now live in the U.K. Nora moved from South Korea to Canada and then New York. Could you talk a bit about that theme?

What’s so funny is that when we talk about identity, a part of our talking about identity is a flattening of our human experience into words. If you’d talk about your identity, you’d say: Well, I’m an Austrian with a Hungarian dad, who is a journalist, which isn’t the whole of what’s going on with you. And then once a New Yorker. So everything is about a flattening of your experience. The time that you spent in New York, I don’t think that could be boiled down to [just] a New Yorker, because every day you lived there, you gave that city time and space, right? And every day was being alive in that time. You can’t really talk about that as a flat word. What you can talk about is an experience, or you can think about that as existence. So I think that it is also about existence that is fluid and that also flows through time and space.

It used to be that to move to another town, you’d get on a horse. It used to be a lot harder to be mobile. But now we have become more mobile. And of course, we all have professional pursuits and a lot of our professional pursuits require traveling, or moving to a new place, or changing — changing career or changing company, or whatever it may be. We move from place to place. And that is so much what the movie is about. Absolutely, it is about identity. But I think it is about the way that identity is not flat, but that identity is both spherical and in constant motion. Because right now, I don’t think that you can take New York out of me because I lived in New York for 10 years.

Is Nora the professional working writer person in New York? Yes. Is she also the little girl that she left behind in Korea, only speaks Korean and has all these ambitions and all these issues? Absolutely. I think that we can say that about all of us. I know that you and I sitting here we know that there’s a 12-year-old kid version of us that existed and is kind of in us still. And depending on who you’re talking to you feel that way. I’m sure you’ve heard this before. People sometimes talk about how when they’re spending time with their parents, they’re suddenly back to their teenage days, they feel like a teenager and will then be like: “Mom! Dad!” I think that person exists. So it is really about the many selves that we are. And it’s about both accepting that and reconciling that and letting go of the idea that you’re just one thing.

Have you come up with an idea for a follow-up film yet or do you know if you want to go into a different direction in terms of subject matter?

As an artist, the thing that you want the most for your work is for it to be alive. Every new thing you do has to feel completely alive to you. And what works for me always is that there has to be some part of it that is brand new to me, more or less something that I haven’t done before ever. Something that scares me or something that makes me feel like it is going to teach me something. Something that I think is smarter than me. Those are the things that I really hope for in every single project that I do. So whatever it may be the projects that I want to do are always the things that are going to make me feel alive doing them, because I don’t want to beat a dead horse”.

Even though I have spent a lot of time with Celina Song and Greta Gerwig, and I have also highlighted particular films directed and or written by women, there are so many more this year that are worth exploring! Rather than use this feature to illustrate that progress needs to be made and there is still not enough exposure of films by women, it is more a celebration and acknowledgement of the phenomenal work they have brought us. From outrageous and hugely fun comedies to tender and stirring pieces that linger in the heart, there are so many different aspects and voices being projected onto the big screen. Although the ratio of male to female directed is still skewed and only seven women have ever been nominated as Best Director at the Oscars – three have won: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (2010), Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (2021) and Jane Campion, Power of the Dog (2022) -, I think this will change. You can feel and sense that things are moving forward now and there is not quite the discrepancies and gulfs that there were. I think, apart from Christopher Nolan, Celine Song and Greta Gerwig must be favourites to win that Best Director award next year. Female screenwriters and directors do not get quite as many opportunities as their male peers. Plus, as we saw when Barbie was successful, there are far too many waiting to attack and display misogyny and sexism – even if they defend themselves by saying it is fair criticism. However, as women directors outnumbered men at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, there is this new shift towards equality and acknowledgement of incredible female directors. As you can see from the films listed above, amazing women behind the camera and writing these stunning scenes are adding so much beauty, wonder, history, genius and unforgettable moments…

TO cinema in 2023.

FEATURE: Back to The Trouble Club… Tackling the Past, Celebrating the Present, Preparing for the Future

FEATURE:

 

 

Back to The Trouble Club…

IN THIS PHOTO: Political activist and author Gina Martin (she is known for her case to make upskirting illegal in England and Wales, which resulted in the Voyeurism Act 2019) appeared with transgender actress, activist, and author Charlie Craggs for The Trouble Club at AllBright, London on 3rd August, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Neil Cameron

Tackling the Past, Celebrating the Present, Preparing for the Future

_________

THIS is my second feature this year…

relating to The Trouble Club. Last month, I wrote how the club has had a positive impact on me. I joined this embracing and inclusive group of people earlier this year - and, since then, I have tried to get to as many events as possible. There has been a bit happening since August that has compelled me to write again! If you are not aware of The Trouble Club and what they do, then here is some information and background:

“Welcome to a rather special members' club: we are here to enliven your mind, to expand your circle of friends, and to build a society of smart and engaged people who share the same interests.

We have a rich programme of talks, debates, dinners, private evenings out at cultural openings and foreign jaunts. We work with some of the finest venues in London - currently The Groucho Club in Soho and Mortimer House in Fitzrovia. For what's on, see our schedule.

A bit of history: Trouble first started in 2014 running pop-ups club and evenings in and around Soho. We've had evenings on everything from politics and economics to art, film, gaming and sex, and also drunk a fair amount of gin. There have now been several thousand people through our various doors, many of whom have become friends, done business together and keep nagging us to do more events.

There's a few things you should know about Trouble. It is led by women, founded by Joy Lo Dico, moonlighting from her day job as a freelancer for the Financial Times and broadcaster at Monocle as well as speaking and presenting. Its mission is to get great women speakers on stage and to build the bonds across the group.

You are probably by now asking how to join? We pride ourselves on being an inclusive, rather than exclusive, club. Whatever walk of life you come from, you are welcome to apply. Men are also absolutely welcome - indeed we'd love to have you share in this goal. Just be aware you might be outnumbered”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: New York’s Finest: Bestselling author, poet and writer Aija Mayrock held the audience enraptured at Home Grown, London on 15th September, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Alice Lubbock

Being a man, I am often outnumbered at events. That is okay. I think it is important to encourage membership and participation for all genders; though it is brilliant to be surrounded by so many impassioned, committed and interesting women. I shall come to the events I have been to and the ones I am looking forward to. There are a few reason why I am going to encourage male peers to join and become active. As a music journalist, so much of what is spoke about at The Trouble Club – and what they stand for – is relevant to what I do! I go to events to be social and show great willing and appreciation. There is also that learning aspect. I always get so much from every venue I step into. If you want to join, then there are details here. You can follow The Trouble Club via Instagram, X, TikTok, and their YouTube channel. Thanks to Director of The Trouble Club, Eleanor Newton, and Marketing & Events Coordinator, Francesca Edmondson. I shall get to specifics very soon. The venues that events at held at are beautiful and all different. From The Conduit to The Ned, Home Grown, the AllBright, Mortimer House, The Hearth, Kindred, The House of St Barnabas, and Bloomsbury Tavern, the vibe, personality, skin and unique colour scheme and location of each venue adds new atmosphere and nuance to each event! It is kudos and thanks to Eleanor (Ellie) and Francesca that troublemakers (fi Kylie Minogue has her ‘lovers’ fanbase and Taylor Swift has ‘swifties’, then this is The Trouble Club’s collective noun) have this warm and open space to go to on a regular basis. Friendships are made. Connections created! Never clique-like, The Trouble Club embraces and reaches out! I think a few things have happened in the past few weeks that has compelled me to write afresh about The Trouble Club and how membership and participation is important personally and wider afield.

First, a nod to those speakers and guests I have seen so far at The Trouble Club – and what I learned and absorbed from each. I think he first event I attended was She’s In CTRL with Computer Scientist Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon on 16th May. Discussing her book, She’s In CTRL: How Women Can Take Back Tech it poses interesting questions: “Why do so many of us - particularly women - feel the tech world is beyond reach? Women are woefully under-represented in tech - they represent roughly a mere quarter of the UK STEM workforce. This means an ever-increasing series of big decisions are made by a small number of people, mainly men”. It was an inspiring and informative first event, as it opened my eyes to female innovators and how vital they have been. Dr. Imafidon asked Why are women so under-represented in the tech world and how can this be fixed. On 25th May, Award-Winning Author Holly Smale on Neurodiversity and The Cassandra Complex was eye-opening and inspiring. Smale is neurodivergent, so there is a sense of the biographical when it comes to her book – and it is being turned into a T.V. series I believe? The Cassandra Complex centres around the protagonist and asks that question: “If you had the power to change the past... where would you start?”.

Being neurodivergent, many might overthink things are lament on small mistakes and obsess on the future. That idea of going back in time and changing things. Is getting everything right the right decision?! That thing about not fitting in and saying the wrong thing. Not only is/was Smale a compelling speaker and someone who spoke so emotionally, openly and with truth and passion; her words really resounded inside me. Not officially diagnosed as neurodivergent myself, I think it is only a matter of time – as I share a lot of traits with those who have Asperger’s syndrome. Holly Smale made me think about my own personality and situation. And fighting to get a diagnosis As a music journalist, there are so many people who are neurodivergent - so that made me more informed and empathetic. Sophie Haydock on The Flames was really arresting. Discussing her beautiful book, Haydock talked about the artist Egon Schiele and the women he sketched and painted. Always downplayed and made anonymous by the word ‘muses’, we got to hear and see more about the women in the artwork. Giving them spotlight and agency. It was an illuminating and revelatory discussion that introduced me to an artist I was not aware of. It also made me think about the music industry. How women in songs are called ‘muses’ and we do not think about them. How women through the industry and seen as inferior or do not get their stories and voices heard as much as men. That imbalance and gender divide was given new contrast and relevance after I left the evening Sophie Haydock spoke.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Award-winning author and journalist, Poorna Bell/PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Cameron

Trouble Meets Poorna Bell occurred on 28th June. Her debut novel, In Case of Emergency, was front and centre. An intriguing premise – (In Case of Emergency) “follows the humorous and poignant story of 36-year-old Bel Kumar who has a near-death experience and wakes up in hospital to find her ex-boyfriend has been called as her emergency contact. It prompts a reckoning of how she’s been living her life, and reconnecting with people from her past, who were once important to her“. It was another powerful evening! I thought more about my own life and how I have been living. Whether it is purposeful and worthy…or if I need to rethink things. I have not been close to death to realise that thought, yet the aftermath of hearing Bell speak about her life and how she got where she is now…that gave me a lot of strength and clarity. Plans for the long-term (maybe moving to New York and trying to work in music and film), her words are very much still in my head. I did not go to the event, though I KILLED MY EX x Q&A with Emilie Biason was held at the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 5th July. I saw the play the night after, and I have been inspired by Biason’s incredible words and direction.

Having just finished a run in Edinburgh, the play has a vital aim and objective: “It opens space to initiate meaningful discussions around emotional trauma, encouraging reflection on the vital role of healthy boundaries in our relationships”. I can see this being turned into a film or T.V. comedy-drama. A strong female director and writer, Emilie Biason influenced me instantly – in terms of thinking about the amazing women through music, film and the arts telling powerful, touching and original stories. How important their work and voices are. "No Offence, But..." With Gina Martin & Charlie Craggs was tremendous! Gina Martin is a gender equality campaigner, speaker and writer whose work focuses on gender, misogyny and sexual violence. She is a proud ambassador for UNWomen UK and Beyond Equality. She was speaking about her book and how she helped bring about a huge moment that made upskirting a criminal offence. Sharing her experiences and diving into her book, Charlie Craggs talked about her life as a trans woman and a lot of the ignorance and hatred she has received. Their research, writing and discussions highlighted tricky and potential divisive conversations that are hard to navigate. The book, through information, advice and statistics, shows how we can navigate those tricky conversations. I will talk more about them both soon. I would advise you pick up Charlie Craggs’s book, To My Trans Sisters. It is essential reading!

On 9th August, The Trouble Club welcomed A Celebration of Black Womanhood with Catherine Joy White. Discussing her book, This Thread of Gold: A Celebration of Black Womanhood, White spoke (beautifully) about important Black women; this resistance from inspiring disruptors who we should all remember and celebrate. This is what you need to know: “From Alice Walker to Beyonce, from Audre Lorde to Doreen Lawrence, from Aretha Franklin to Zendaya: Catherine Joy White charts her own journey to self-discovery through the prism of extraordinary women to create a beautiful tapestry of Black joy”. In my music journalism, I am seeing so many influential and strong women creating this resistance and disruption. Whether it is against gender bias or the rise of sexual assaults through the industry – more on that later -, Catherine Joy White’s book gave much food for thought! Vogue's Annie Lord & Actress Rebecca Humphries’s On Love, Heartbreak & Toxic Relationships went down on 16th August. Humphries’s book, Why Did You Stay?, talks about the self-worth. Framed around a toxic relationship – though it is about empowerment and self-worth and not controversy or being a victim -,  she is reclaiming her identity from the very public victimhood she endured after her partner was caught cheating on a prime-time T.V. show (Strictly Come Dancing’s Seann Walsh). Annie Lord’s Notes on Heartbreak is almost like a journal and diary. Looking back at ill-advised relationship and decisions, both women were extremely open and inspiring in their relations and honesty. This openness and strength was extremely moving. The joys and pains of being in love. Whether there is public fall-out or private pain, there was so much I took away from them that I use in my work now! As I will discuss soon, Russell Brand’s crimes (I have to say ‘alleged’, though there is fact to all allegations) are very relevant when it comes to some of the stuff Humphries and Lord was saying. Same goes for Gina Martin (and, in fact, all the women who speak for The Trouble Club and all those in attendance).

 IN THIS PHOTO: Actress, author and journalist Rebecca Humphries

On 25th August, An Evening with Yomi Adegoke took place. Adegoke’s best-selling book, The List, is must-read. Here is the skinny: “Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist, is marrying the love of her life in one month's time. Young, beautiful, successful – she and her fiancé Michael seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: ‘Oh my god, have you seen The List?’ It began as a list of anonymous allegations about abusive men. Now it has been published online. Ola made her name breaking exactly this type of story. She would usually be the first to cover it, calling for the men to be fired. Except today, Michael’s name is on there. With their future on the line, Ola gives Michael an ultimatum to prove his innocence by their wedding day, but will the truth of what happened change everything for both of them?”. Relevant when she wrote it and relevant today – again, Russell Brand spring to mind -, she is a brilliant author. The novel was the subject of a recent article in The New York Times. Again, The List is being brought to the screen. So watch this space! Four more events to go. Dawn Butler On A Purposeful Life was held on 29th August…

Her book, A Purposeful Life (which you can also find here), is inspiring: “As the third Black woman ever to be elected as an MP, and the first elected African-Caribbean woman to become a Government Minister, Dawn Butler is a true pioneer. Famously ejected from the House of Commons for calling Boris Johnson a liar, her tireless campaigning to eradicate injustice - from the NHS to the Metropolitan Police - has changed lives. Until now, she's never talked openly about what has inspired and motivated her to persevere in the face of oppression. Drawing on lessons from her own life, Dawn shows how traditional routes to power are outdated and reveals that it's easier than we think to disrupt a broken system. From her early life to the Palace of Westminster, she shares the values, people, places and beliefs that have helped her to forge her own authentic path to power”. I am reading the book right now. I was mesmerised when Butler spoke for The Trouble Club. On 14th September, The Betrayal of the NHS with Dr Julia Patterson found Patterson speak about her book, Critical: Why the NHS is Being Betrayed and How We Can Fight for it. It is shocking how the Government is neglecting the NHS. Such a vital pillar and foundation that is fundamental and essential to us all, I cam away with a new thought: no matter if it is an intuition, small music venue or beloved venue, letting something die that is so vital and integral to a community or country needs to be challenged and stopped!

The wonderous Transforming Pain into Poetry: An Evening with Aija Mayrock was one of the most powerful and memorable events I have been at. Mayrock read from her volume of poetry, Dear Girl. I carry it around with me! It is about this: “From a poet and celebrated spoken-word performer comes a debut poetry collection that takes readers on an empowering, lyrical journey exploring truth, silence, wounds, healing, and the resilience we all share. Dear Girl is a journey from girlhood to womanhood through poetry. It is the search for truth in silence. The freeing of the tongue. It is deep wounds and deep healing. And the resilience that lies within us. It is a love letter. To the sisterhood”. I am sadly going to miss Explorer Jacki Hill-Murphy On The Greatest Female Adventurers tomorrow (29th September) owing to family commitments and train strikes. I am really gutted! I will go and see An Evening with Bestselling Author, Kate Mosse on 3rd October, The Trouble Club STORY SLAM on 5th October, In Black and White with Alexandra Wilson on 10th October, Sharing is Caring: Eleanor Tucker on the Sharing Economy on 12th October, and The Balanced Brain with Camilla Nord on 26th October – so I can’t complain too much…my diary is pretty full! I hope too to be at Trouble's Big Night Out: Featuring Caroline Criado Perez & Kelechi Okafor on 18th December at Conway Hall.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dr. Julia Patterson (with Eleanor Newton, right) photographed at The Hearth, London on 14th September, 2023 (she was speaking about the NHS, her experiences of being a doctor, and the amazing book, Critical: Why the NHS is Being Betrayed and How We Can Fight for it)/PHOTO CREDIT: Alice Lubbock

The most recent event I attended, on 19th September, was the inaugural Trouble In Business: Triumphs & Challenges from the FTSE Women Leaders Review. Charlotte Moore hosted the amazing Diana Brightmore-Armour, Ann Francke, and Pavita Cooper, where they discussed thew progress of women in business and whether that FTSE review was all positive – or whether there are still a lot of issues to address. It was a very busy and interesting evening where I learned a lot. Things that I can relate to the music industry and use. There is a private screening of Fair Play + Q&A with Director Chloe Domont & Emerald Fennell on Monday (2nd October) that I was not quite quick enough to get a ticket for! I will definitely check out the film, as I am a big fan of Emerald Fennell. Every event I attend is enriching and useful in various ways. Overall, it is the experience of hearing these women speak and, every time, being motivated to do more. Whether it is calling out men in the music industry who are controversial or abusive, or highlighting gender discrepancies and imbalance through festivals and radio playlists, so much of that motivation and education arises from these Trouble Club events. So, once more, a huge thanks to them! In terms embracing music from women in music and exploring the great range of sounds and stories, it has compelled me to write a feature about the best albums from women this year. Those - and dozens more - who warrant a lot of respect and opportunities.

I am going to address the title of this feature as quickly as I can. When it comes to what I do – music journalism -, there is a lot to celebrate. Women are producing the best music around. In fact, on Saturday, I am publishing a feature listing the fifteen best albums made by women this year. Kylie’s Minogue’s latest, TENSION, has been receiving rave reviews. At fifty-five, she is still right at her peak! Showing that ageism levelled against her by stations such as BBC Radio 1 are embarrassing! Brilliance is brilliance…regardless of age! Women get sidelined and are subject to ageism a lot. So many of the best artists coming through are women. There is a lot to celebrate at the moment. Even so, there is still massive inequality. There are some incredible change makers and game changers out there. Each time I attend a Trouble Club event, I can use something (some thread of gold) to apply to my work. Ideas come up and I am led to think more deeply about women’s experiences in music and why recognising their brilliance and fighting for their rights is so vital. Something Gina Martin posted recently got me thinking. Comedian (supposedly) Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and controlling and abusive behaviour. There is this article from The Times that is devastating and appalling in addition to being revealing and hugely important.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Russell Brand (photo and composite courtesy of Cosmopolitan)

A Dispatches investigation that went out on Channel 4 was such a powerful and often disturbing case study of a man who has abused and assaulted women. A figure, as the title suggested, was in plain sight and doing this all of the time. Such intensely shocking viewing, I can emphasise with Gina Martin when she says maybe so many people who have been speaking about Brand and how horrifying this is will not keep that pressure up. He is high-profile and famous. What about all the other incidents of rape and sexual abuse that get reported going forward?! She has to fight so hard! But is everyone doing all they can?! That stirred me! Marina Hyde recently shared an article where she highlighted the media in the noughties and how there was this toxic culture of misogyny. I realised that every woman who I have seen speak for The Trouble Club has experienced some form of sexual abuse, assault, or harassment, misogyny and sexism. Every woman who has attended any event. Speakers like Gina Martin and Marina Hyde have…

IN THIS PHOTO: Charlie Craggs/PHOTO CREDIT: Laurence Philomene

We all have to confront the past and put women first. Believe women. So many people defended Russell Brand and came up with things like “Innocent until proven guilty”. Like this was trial by media! That he doesn’t seem to be a rapist – like there is a type that rings alarm bells when they step into a room! -, and so many other horrifying words. Doubting the women who spoke to Dispatches. Like they were doing it for a payout (someone on Twitter rightly asked how many women do you know get rich off of making false sexual assault claims?!). It was all very disgusting and problematic. In the future, we need to look back to the past and a culture that we celebrated and spotlighted. Whether ‘lad culture’ or just the fact the '90s and '00s was something that seemed okay at the time, there is this reckoning where we are looking at mistakes and wondering how someone like Brand, in plain sight and very clearly abusive and troubling (we saw clips on Dispatches of him talking about his sexual escapades and using really degrading language), got away with it for so long! When all these allegations (truths) came to light – and there have been allegations made since - there will be a tidal wave of change and campaigning. It got me thinking about every woman I have seen speak at The Trouble Club. I turned that to music and how every woman, in some form, has experienced sexual abuse, assault, harassment – or received unwanted sexually explicit images or language that is derogatory or foul. It has fired me up to ask whether music has had its awakening. When will it engage in the #MeToo movement. I am not more determined more than ever to not let women like Gina Martin down! Whatever gender you are, there is this time and real emergency where we need to ensure that men like Russell Brand are brought to justice and are not allowed to predate and abuse women.

I am adding this segment today (27th September) in reaction and relation to two news stories that occurred that have caused a big reaction online. The senseless and barbaric killing of a Croydon schoolgirl left us stunned and appalled. The victim, Eliyanna, was trying to protect her friend from her knife-wielding ex-boyfriend. The boy is said to have pulled out a foot-long knife and stabbed the girl after she leapt to her friend’s defence. Not only did it raise the issue around violence against women and girls. It also highlighted the discussion around incels and radicalising figures like Andrew Tate, whose toxic masculinity mandates and poisonous ideologies are sending out very dangerous messages. A rise in knife crimes and murders of teens in London is disturbing and needs to be addressed. So many people on social media have been sharing their thoughts. Many have been sharing a famous quote by a former Trouble Club guest, Margaret Atwood: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them”. Her work around misogyny that runs through society seems as relevant and powerful now as it ever has.

IN THIS PHOTO: Poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist and inventor, Margaret Atwood/PHOTO CREDIT: Pari Dukovic for The New Yorker

In addition to that horrific incident, Laurence Fox was suspended from GB News along with Dan Wooton after Fox’s misogynistic, sexist, and abusive comments about political correspondent Ava Evans. She has responded to the comments made about her. It provoked fury online and once more brought to the centre how there are disturbing and hateful people like Lawrence Fox who are given a platform to say the most atrocious and disgusting things. The fact this all came to a head yesterday and provoked such a reaction made me think about every guest I have seen at The Trouble Club. Those who I have not, such as Margaret Atwood, were in my mind. How so many women are trying to raise funds, start movements and make change but are unable to. Because the Government are not funding them or reacting to their vital work. It makes me think about future Trouble Club guest, Marina Hyde, and her words. In addition to the news yesterday making my stomach turn and building such anger and upset, this desire to say and do something, anything, to help was huge. I have spoken to an organisation fighting for women’s safety and rights regarding an interview and partnering with them. It doesn’t seem enough but, as so many like them keeping fighting and are not being heard, so many men need to get involved and start having difficult conversations. I cannot do the gravity of these crimes and controversies much justice here…suffice it to say, I am seeing that we are at a breaking point. At a watershed moment where there needs to be a tsunami of activation and cultural change!

IN THIS PHOTO: Acclaimed actress, filmmaker and writer, Emerald Fennell

There is a lot to be positive about, mind. I am looking forward to what events The Trouble Club host next year. Maybe filmmakers, actors or those in the music or film industry will speak. Maybe they might cost a lot, but how much of a dream would it be to see someone like Margot Robbie or Greta Gerwig speak?! In terms of the music industry, there are so many artists and those in positions of power who could speak about equality and empowering women. I shall leave my powder dry and not put it into the ether yet; suffice it to say, I have a wedding list of brilliant women who would bring something rich, important and thought-provoking to a potential future event. Before wrapping up, it is worth mentioning filmmakers like Greta Gerwig. As director and co-writer (with her partner Noah Baumbach) of Barbie, she has set record and inspired female directors. We still talk about ‘women in film’, like it is a charity thing (Adam Buxton raised that with Gerwig when she spoke with him around the release of her 2018 film, Lady Bird). I have written a separate feature that discusses the brilliant women in film this year (I am sad I was not fast enough to get a ticket for Private Screening of Fair Play + Q&A with Director Chloe Domont & Emerald Fennell (at The Soho Hotel on 2nd October), as I am a huge fan of both). How Margot Robbie brought the concept of a Barbie film to Gerwig. How this film has inspired so many people. Why it is a feminist work. It is also one that received a lot of features and discussion. How people incorrectly assumed it isn’t feminist or is offensive to the way they portrayed men (not mentioning the countless film that insulted and degraded women that were never protested and attacked, not least of all by men).

I shall not go on here - though it is vital to highlight the pioneers and remarkable women like Gerwig, Robbie, playwright-cum-director/writer Celine Song and her film, Past Lives. Incredible women like Molly Gordon (who co-wrote and starred in one of this year’s best films, Theatre Camp), Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott (who wrote + directed the hilarious Bottoms), and Adele Lim, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao (directors and writers of Joy Ride). Get to a place where there is equality in the film business. Even though there is a strike on that is impacting the whole industry, we can see that many of the best and most important films of this year have been helmed and made by women! As I said, I have gone into more detail in another feature. I will wrap it up now. I wanted to follow up from a previous feature about The Trouble Club and say how important it has been to me. Making me more outgoing, I have spoken with and been around so many interesting people. I look forward to the remaining events in 2023! I have been inspired to think about my own life and where I want to go. Think more deeply about women’s issues and how there is still so much discrimination. Compel movement in the music industry in the wake of Russell Brand’s crimes. The brilliant books I have bought after events and how I am absorbing so much from each of them. I will leave things there; thought I will revisit The Trouble Club and produce a third feature...

SOMETIME next year.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four: Ranking the Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four

Ranking the Tracks

_________

AS Kate Bush’s magnificent…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins

sixth studio album, The Sensual World, turns thirty-four on 17th October, I am compelled to do a few features about it. I am turning to the invaluable Kate Bush Encyclopedia for their resources and invaluable information. I thought, for this feature, to rank the tracks on the album. The top few positions may surprise you. I think that, as many associate The Sensual World with its singles, they may not spend a lot of time thinking about the other songs. I have included the album below so that people can listen. It may be interesting doing a feature one day ranking which album of Bush’s has the best deep cuts. That may be Hounds of Love – I would consider The Ninth Wave (the album’s second side suite) and Mother Stands for Comfort as deep cuts – but, again, there may be a surprise or two in there! Before The Sensual World turns thirty-four, I wanted to give it some love. It is one of her masterpieces, that is for sure! Below are the eleven tracks (I am including the bonus track, Walk Straight Down the Middle, which was included on the C.D. version of the album) in order of their superiority. I may have ranked the tracks before for another feature though, the more I listen, the more stuff shifts around. Time for another declaration! One that might not budge for quite a while! There are no bad or even average songs on this album, so it was pretty hard deciding the absolute genius from…

THE merely phenomenal.

_______________

ELEVEN: Love and Anger

Position on the Album: 2

Standout Lyric: “Tell you what I'm feeling/But I don't know if I'm ready yet/You come walking into this room/Like you're walking into my arms/What would I do without you?”

Background Detail:

“It's one of the most difficult songs I think I've ever written. It was so elusive, and even today I don't like to talk about it, because I never really felt it let me know what it's about. It's just kind of a song that pulled itself together, and with a tremendous amount of encouragement from people around me. There were so many times I thought it would never get on the album. But I'm really pleased it did now. (Interview, WFNX Boston (USA), 1989)

I couldn't get the lyrics. They were one of the last things to do. I just couldn't find out what the song was about, though the tune was there. The first verse was always there, and that was the problem, because I'd already set some form of direction, but I couldn't follow through. I didn't know what I wanted to say at all. I guess I was just tying to make a song that was comforting, up tempo, and about how when things get really bad, it's alright really - "Don't worry old bean. Someone will come and help you out."

The song started with a piano, and Del put a straight rhythm down. Then we got the drummer, and it stayed like that for at least a year and a half. Then I thought maybe it could be okay, so we got Dave Gilmour in. This is actually one of the more difficult songs - everyone I asked to try and play something on this track had problems. It was one of those awful tracks where either everything would sound ordinary, really MOR, or people just couldn't come to terms with it. They'd ask me what it was about, but I didn't know because I hadn't written the lyrics. Dave was great - I think he gave me a bit of a foothold there, really. At least there was a guitar that made some sense. And John [Giblin] putting the bass on - that was very important. He was one of the few people brave enough to say that he actually liked the song. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

TEN: Walk Straight Down the Middle

Position on the Album: 11 (as the bonus inclusion on the C.D. version of The Sensual World)

Standout Lyric: “He thought he was gonna die/But he didn't/She thought she just couldn't cope/But she did”

Background Detail:

“It's a bit less worked on than the other tracks. It's about try not to get caught up in extremes. My mother was down the garden when the funny bits at the end were being played. She rushed in and said she'd heard some peacocks in the garden! How sweet! I can't take the song seriously now. ('Love Trust and Hitler'. Tracks (UK), November 1989)

I fancied being Captain Beefheart at that point, and it just came to me: standing out, calling for help in the middle. It just went, "BBRRRROOOOAAAAAAAAA''. It's the idea of how our fear are sometimes holding us back, and yet there's really no need to be frightened. Like 'The Fog', being scared because the water's deep, you could be drowned; but actually if you put your feet down the bottom's there and it's only waist high, so what's the problem? Just get on with it: that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

'Walk Straight Down The Middle' came together very quickly. It's about following either of two extremes, when you really want to plough this path straight down the middle. Rather than "WAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH": being thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other. I'd like to think of myself as holding the centre, whereas in fact I'm - "WAAARRRRGGGGHHHH" - taking off all the time. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)”

NINE: Between a Man and a Woman

Position on the Album: 7

Standout Lyric: “This isn't your problem/Do not interfere/You are not needed here/Let the pendulum swing”

Background Detail:

“It is perhaps about how you actually have that choice sometimes, whether to interfere or not. You know, there's this tendency to want to leap in and take over and control: "Oh, I know best!"; when I think a relationship is a very delicate balance: it's very easily tipped, and then needs to be refound again. (Steve Sutherland, 'The Language Of Love'. Melody Maker (UK), 21 October 1989)

That was, let's get a groove going at the piano, and a pretty straightforward Fairlight pattern. Then we got the drummer in, and I thought that maybe it was taking on a slightly Sixties feel - not that it is. So we got Alan [Murphy] in to play guitar - who unfortunately wasn't credited - a printing error. He played some smashing guitar. Then I wanted to work with the cellist again, because I think the cello is such a beautiful instrument. I find it very male and female - not one or the other. He's actually the only player that I've ever written out music for. They're lucky if they get chord charts normally.

We were just playing around with a groove. We actually had a second verse that was similar to the first, and I thought it was really boring. I hated it, so it sat around for about six months. So I took it into a completely different section which worked much better. Just having that little bit on the front worked much better. Quite often I have to put things aside and think about them if they just haven't worked. If you leave a little time, it's surprising how often you can come back and turn it into something. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

EIGHT: Rocket’s Tail

Position on the Album: 9

Standout Lyric: “Was it me said you were crazy?/I put on my cloudiest suit/Size 5 lightning boots, too”

Background Detail:

“I wrote this for the trio, really, musically, in that I wanted a song that could really show them off. The other two songs that they appear on were already structured and in a way they had to very much fit around the song's structure to become a part of it, but this song they were there en masse, really, the whole song was based around them. And I wrote it on a synthesizer with a choir sound and just sang along. We put John's on and I had no idea if their voices were going to work on it at all, really, so the whole thing hung on the fact of whether when we went out to Bulgaria, whether it worked or not. And the arranger we worked with out there was such a brilliant man. In some ways, I think that the fact that we didn't speak the same language made our communication much easier because he seemed to know exactly what I wanted, and, really, just after a few hours he was coming up with the most incredible tunes, and I just had to say "Oh yes, I like that one", "Er, no, not too keen on that one," "Umm, that's lovely!" and just go away and write it out. It was incredible, I've never worked like that before, so quickly with someone I've never met before. It was really exciting to find that kind of chemistry. (...)

Rocket is one of my cats, and he was the inspiration for the subject matter for the song, because he's dead cute [laughs]. And it's very strange subject matter because the song isn't exactly about Rocket, it's kind of inspired by him and for him, but the song, it's about anything. I guess it's saying there's nothing wrong with being right here at this moment, and just enjoying this moment to its absolute fullest, and if that's it, that's ok, you know. And it's kind of using the idea of a rocket that's so exciting for maybe 3 seconds and then it's gone, you know that's it, but so what, it had 3 seconds of absolutely wonderful... [laughs]  (Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)”

SEVEN: Deeper Understanding

Position on the Album: 6

Standout Lyric: “But I was lonely, I was lost/Without my little black box/I pick up the phone and go, Execute”

Background Detail:

“This is about people... well, about the modern situation, where more and more people are having less contact with human beings. We spend all day with machines; all night with machines. You know, all day, you're on the phone, all night you're watching telly. Press a button, this happens. You can get your shopping from the Ceefax! It's like this long chain of machines that actually stop you going out into the world. It's like more and more humans are becoming isolated and contained in their homes. And this is the idea of someone who spends all their time with their computer and, like a lot of people, they spend an obsessive amount of time with their computer. People really build up heavy relationships with their computers! And this person sees an ad in a magazine for a new program: a special program that's for lonely people, lost people. So this buff sends off for it, gets it, puts it in their computer and then like , it turns into this big voice that's saying to them, "Look, I know that you're not very happy, and I can offer you love: I'm her to love you. I love you!" And it's the idea of a divine energy coming through the least expected thing. For me, when I think of computers, it's such a cold contact and yet, at the same time, I really believe that computers could be a tremendous way for us to look at ourselves in a very spiritual way because I think computers could teach us more about ourselves than we've been able to look at, so far. I think there's a large part of us that is like a computer. I think in some ways, there's a lot of natural processes that are like programs... do you know what I mean? And I think that, more and more, the more we get into computers and science like that, the more we're going to open up our spirituality. And it was the idea of this that this... the last place you would expect to find love, you know, real love, is from a computer and, you know, this is almost like the voice of angels speaking to this person, saying they've come to save them: "Look, we're here, we love you, we're here to love you!" And it's just too much, really, because this is just a mere human being and they're being sucked into the machine and they have to be rescued from it. And all they want is that, because this is "real" contact. (Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1 interview, 14 October 1989)”

SIX: Never Be Mine

Position on the Album: 8

Standout Lyric: “I want you as the dream/Not the reality/That clumsy goodbye-kiss could fool me/But I'm looking back over my shoulder/At you, happy without me”

Background Detail:

“I wanted a sort of eastern sounding rhythm. I wrote it first on the piano, though the words were completely different, except for the choruses. I did it on the piano to a Fairlight rhythm that Del programmed - I think that maybe because of the quality of the sounds, it was harder for Del to come up with the patterns. And I was more strict - he found it much harder. I think the pattern in 'Heads We're Dancing' is really good - really unusual, the best he came up with. But 'Never Be Mine' was kind of tabla based. We got Eberhard (Weber) over to play bass and he played on the whole song. When we were trying to piece it together later we kept saying it just doesn't feel right, so we just took the bass out and had it in these two sections. You hardly notice it going out at all. I think the song has a very light feel about it, which helps the whole imagery. The Uilean pipes have a very light feel, and the piano is light... I think it's a nice contrast when the bass suddenly come in.

The piano on this is an upright Bernstein that has a really nice sound - I think it has to do with proportions for us. We did have a big piano and it's a small room, and it didn't record well. The small piano sounds much bigger. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

FIVE: Reaching Out

Position on the Album: 4

Standout Lyric: “See how the man reaches out instinctively/For what he cannot have”

Background Detail:

“That was really quick, really straightforward. A walk in the park did that one for me. I really needed one more song to kind of lift the album. I was a bit worried that it was all sort of dark and down. I'd been getting into walks at that time, and just came back and sat at the piano and wrote it, words and all. I had this lovely conversation with someone around the time I was about to start writing it. They were talking about this star that exploded. I thought it was such fantastic imagery. The song was taking the whole idea of how we cling onto things that change - we're always trying to not let things change. I thought it was such a lovely image of people reaching up for a star, and this star explodes. Where's it gone? It seemed to sum it all up really. That's kind of about how you can't hold on to anything because everything is always changing and we all have such a terrible need to hold onto stuff and to keep it exactly how it is, because this is nice and we don't want it to change. But sometimes even if things aren't nice, people don't want them to change. And things do. Just look at the natural balance of things: how if you reach out for something, chances are it will pull away. And when things reach out for you, the chances are you will pull away. You know everything ebbs and flows, and you know the moon is full and then it's gone: it's just the balance of things. (...) We did a really straightforward treatment on the track; did the piano to a clicktrack, got Charlie Morgan [Elton john's drummer] to come in and do the drums, Del did the bass, and Michael Nyman came in to do the strings. I told him it had to have a sense of uplifting, and I really like his stuff - the rawness of his strings. It's a bit like a fuzzbox touch - quite 'punk'. I find that very attractive - he wrote it very quickly. I was very pleased. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

FOUR: The Sensual World

Position on the Album: 1

Standout Lyric: “And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes/I said, mmh, yes/But not yet, mmh, yes/Mmh, yes”

Background Detail:

“Because I couldn't get permission to use a piece of Joyce it gradually turned into the song about Molly Bloom the character stepping out of the book, into the real world and the impressions of sensuality. Rather than being in this two-dimensional world, she's free, let loose to touch things, feel the ground under her feet, the sunsets, just how incredibly sensual a world it is. (...) In the original piece, it's just 'Yes' - a very interesting way of leading you in. It pulls you into the piece by the continual acceptance of all these sensual things: 'Ooh wonderful!' I was thinking I'd never write anything as obviously sensual as the original piece, but when I had to rewrite the words, I was trapped. How could you recreate that mood without going into that level of sensuality? So there I was writing stuff that months before I'd said I'd never write. I have to think of it in terms of pastiche, and not that it's me so much. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)

The song is about someone from a book who steps out from this very black and white 2-D world into the real world. The immediate impressions was the sensuality of this world - the fact that you can touch things, that is so sensual - you know... the colours of trees, the feel of the grass on the feet, the touch of this in the hand - the fact that it is such a sensual world. I think for me that's an incredibly important thing about this planet, that we are surrounded by such sensuality and yet we tend not to see it like that. But I'm sure for someone who had never experienced it before it would be quite a devastating thing. (...) I love the sound of church bells. I think they are extraordinary - such a sound of celebration. The bells were put there because originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words. I tried for a long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them, so I had to create something that sounded like those original word, had the same rhythm, the same kind of feel but obviously not being able to use them. It all kind of turned in to a pastiche of it and that's why the book character, Molly Bloom, then steps out into the real world and becomes one of us. (Roger Scott, Interview. Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)”

THREE: Heads We’re Dancing

Position on the Album: 5

Standout Lyric: “They say that the Devil is a charming man/And just like you I bet he can dance”

Background Detail:

“That's a very dark song, not funny at all! (...) I wrote the song two years ago, and in lots of ways I wouldn't write a song like it now. I'd really hate it if people were offended by this...But it was all started by a family friend, years ago, who'd been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming. They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for. I understood the reaction, but I felt a bit sorry for Oppenheimer. He tried to live with what he'd done, and actually, I think, committed suicide. But I was so intrigued by this idea of my friend being so taken by this person until they knew who they were, and then it completely changing their attitude. So I was thinking, what if you met the Devil? The Ultimate One: charming, elegant, well spoken. Then it turned into this whole idea of a girl being at a dance and this guy coming up, cocky and charming, and she dances with him. Then a couple of days later she sees in the paper that it was Hitler. Complete horror: she was that close, perhaps could've changed history. Hitler was very attractive to women because he was such a powerful figure, yet such an evil guy. I'd hate to feel I was glorifying the situation, but I do know that whereas in a piece of film it would be quite acceptable, in a song it's a little bit sensitive. (Len Brown, 'In the Realm of the Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)

It's a very dark idea, but it's the idea of this girl who goes to a big ball; very expensive, romantic, exciting, and it's 1939, before the war starts. And this guy, very charming, very sweet-spoken, comes up and asks her to dance but he does it by throwing a coin and he says, ``If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!'' Even that's a very attractive 'come on', isn't it? And the idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror - absolute horror. What could be worse? To have been so close to the man... she could have tried to kill him... she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening. And I think Hitler is a person who fooled so many people. He fooled nations of people. And I don't think you can blame those people for being fooled, and maybe it's these very charming people... maybe evil is not always in the guise you expect it to be. (Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1, 14 October 1989)

Like Mick Karn's bass on 'Heads We're Dancing' puts such a different feel to the song. I was really impressed with Mick - his energy. He's very distinctive - so many people admire him because he stays in that unorthodox area, he doesn't come into the commercial world - he just does his thing. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

TWO: This Woman’s Work

 

Position on the Album: 10

Standout Lyric: “I should be crying, but I just can't let it show/I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking”

Background Detail:

“John Hughes, the American film director, had just made this film called 'She's Having A Baby', and he had a scene in the film that he wanted a song to go with. And the film's very light: it's a lovely comedy. His films are very human, and it's just about this young guy - falls in love with a girl, marries her. He's still very much a kid. She gets pregnant, and it's all still very light and child-like until she's just about to have the baby and the nurse comes up to him and says it's a in a breech position and they don't know what the situation will be. So, while she's in the operating room, he has so sit and wait in the waiting room and it's a very powerful piece of film where he's just sitting, thinking; and this is actually the moment in the film where he has to grow up. He has no choice. There he is, he's not a kid any more; you can see he's in a very grown-up situation. And he starts, in his head, going back to the times they were together. There are clips of film of them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of thing. And it was such a powerful visual: it's one of the quickest songs I've ever written. It was so easy to write. We had the piece of footage on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these visuals. It was almost a matter of telling the story, and it was a lovely thing to do: I really enjoyed doing it. (Roger Scott Interview, BBC Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)

That's the sequence I had to write the song about, and it's really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his wife and him going for walks, decorating... It's exploring his sadness and guilt: suddenly it's the point where he has to grow up. He'd been such a wally up to this point. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)”

ONE: The Fog

Position on the Album: 3

Standout Lyric: "Just put your feet down child/The water is only waist high/I'll let go of you gently/Then you can swim to me”

Background Detail:

“That started at the Fairlight. We got these big chords of strings, and put this line over the top, and then I got this idea of these words - slipping into the fog. I thought wouldn't it be interesting to sort of really visualize that in a piece of music, with all these strings coming in that would actually be the fog. So I wrote a bit of music that went on the front of what I'd done, and extended it backwards with this bit on the front that was very simple and straightforward, but then went into the big orchestral bit, to get the sense of fog coming in.

Then we put a drummer on, and Nigel Kennedy, the violinist, came in and replaced the Fairlight violin, which changed the nature of it. He's great to work with - such a great musician. The times we work together we sort of write together. I'll say something like, "what about doing something a bit like Vaughan Williams?", and he'll know the whole repertoire, and he'll pick something, and maybe I'll change something. By doing that we came up with this different musical section that hadn't been on the Fairlight.

So when I got all this down it seemed to make sense story-wise. This new section became like a flashback area. And then I got the lyrics together about slipping into the fog, and relationships, trying to let go of people.

It sounded great with the Fairlight holding it together, but it just didn't have the sense of dimension I wanted. So we got hold of Michael Kamen, who orchestrated some of the last album, and we said we wanted this bit here with waves and flashbacks. He's really into this because he's always writing music for films, and he loves the idea of visual imagery. So we put his orchestra in on top of the Fairlight.

Again a very complicated process, and he was actually the last thing to go on. I don't know how anything comes out as one song, because sometimes it's such a bizarre process. It does seem to work together somehow. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”

FEATURE: Changing the Tradition: The Art and Value of the Covers and Tribute Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Changing the Tradition

The Art and Value of the Covers and Tribute Album

_________

ON 6th October…

 IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: Radiohead’s poster for Everything in Its Right Place

a new album from The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) arrives. Versions, as you might guess from the title, is a covers album. Someone who is brilliant at interpreting other artists’ songs – I wonder if she’ll put a Kate Bush cover on another album?! -, I am excited to see how she tackles tracks from a wide range of legends. I shall get to that detail soon. I am going to go on a slight tangent and discuss legendary artists and why there are no more cover albums dedicated to them. I have been thinking about boygenius (Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers) and they would perfectly cover some Radiohead classics. OK Computer’s Climbing Up the Walls – which The Anchoress includes on Versions and has released as a single – seems perfect for them in a wonderful way. More on that in a bit. Produced and mixed (bar one track) by Davies, this is the iconic The Anchoress putting her stamp on some awesome songs. Here are some more details:

“The Anchoress (aka Catherine Anne Davies) releases her long awaited album of modern reworkings, ‘Versions’ this autumn, via the recently relaunched Drowned in Sound label. This physical release compiles 10 re-imaginings of songs by the likes of Depeche Mode, The Cure, Nirvana, Nico and Halsey, all produced and mixed by Davies.

The album will appear on limited edition Eco-Mix vinyl (limited to 1000 copies only) and beautiful signed gatefold CD, with 12 page full colour booklet and exclusive additonal bonus track.

As Davies explains of the choice to press on Eco-Mix vinyl, “each record pressed will be a completely unique combination, reworked from leftover wax pellets which feels very apt for the concept of the album, as well as being a more eco-friendly method of production. I love the idea that, like the collection of songs being pieces of other people’s imaginations, this record is quite literally made up of unused parts of other records”.

I am always interested in covers album. Whether it is an artist like The Anchoress taking a selection of songs from other artists, or a compilation of cover songs about a legendary band or artist, it can be hard getting it right. Versions is going to be a great album! It can be very hard getting the tone of an artist just so. Covering a song and making it your own. A new compilation, AngelHeaded Hipster, is musicians tackling songs by Marc Bolan. He died forty-five years ago, so there is this anniversary tribute. You can get the album here. I love Marc Bolan, so I think it will be hard for any of the artists included to match the original songs. Bolan was this poetic and unique artist whose delivery made the words not only believable but fantastical and mystical – something that is watered down and made overwrought my others. It is a good tribute, though I suspect there will be few highlights. I have thought about the artists out there who have not really been covered much or had a tribute album. I did mention Radiohead. The Anchoress tackles Climbing Up the Walls. As the band have been recording for over three decades, it would be good to see a new album where artists cover their songs. There are definitely over artists who have not really been documented and explored through tribute/cover albums. Kate Bush springs to mind. I have been raising this for years. One where larger/better-known artists are in the frame – as opposed ones of unknown acts. Rather than it being a cash-in or opportunistic, it is a way for artists inspired by that act to pay tribute. Let’s hope a Radiohead one happens. Maybe a Blur album too. Madonna springs to mind. She is someone who has not had a tribute album made about her in recent years.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Halsey

Halsey is one artist who The Anchoress covers for Versions. He song, The Tradition, is going to sound very different to the original. Whilst it may seem like an easy way of getting music out between original studio albums, it is actually very hard to nail a covers album! You have all these original songs that are very different that you have to make your own. Whether they are well-known songs or deeper cuts, fans of the artist you are covering will have their say. It does seem quite daunting, yet the artist making the album gets a chance to break away from their usual routine and sound and tackle something very different. It can also given them inspiration and impetus when it comes to a new album. Look at some of the best and most notable cover and tribute albums of all time and how they fared. If I were an artist, I would really like to do one myself! I do think that one really obvious benefit of a covers or tribute album is bringing attention to artists who might not be known to all. Whether hearing a range of artists put their stamp on tracks from a single artist or band, or when a single artist takes on songs from a range of artists, it can be really fascinating! Whether you know The Anchoress or not, I think Versions is going to be fascinating. Let’s hope that other artists do similarly and explore legends and newer artists alike. How many people, say, would put a Tom Waits or Steely Dan track alongside one from Taylor Swift or Charli XCX?! It is quite daring and brave, yet you can get new layers and insights about a track that started life very differently. Original studio albums are great, though I do love it when we get a really tantalising and promising…

TRIBUTE or covers album.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Cher - Believe

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Cher - Believe

_________

I am covering this song for Groovelines…

as it is one of the music iconic of the 1990s. Perhaps Cher’s best-known track, Believe was released on 19th October, 1998. The lead single from the album of the same name (released on 22nd October, 1998), I wanted to go into detail about this incredible song. A chart-topping smash (including a number one in the U.K. and U.S.), it is one of those classics that even non-Cher fans love. It is noted for its Auto-Tune. Rather than use it as a vocal aid, instead it a device that adds this power and punch. In 1998, not many artists were playing with Auto-Tune. As NPR (incorrectly stating Believe was released on 22nd October, 1998 (that was the album date release; the song came out on 19th October) wrote in 2018, Cher sort of acted as a lead and inspiration for those who followed and used Auto-Tune:

“It could've easily been simply a gimmick; instead, Auto-Tune became a very prominent tool in a lot of pop, R&B and hip-hop production. There's a long history of artists using different vocal modifications, but in the past, producers aimed to keep those alterations disguised. Instead of using effects in hopes that the audience wouldn't notice — just to make a vocal a little cleaner, clearer and more on pitch — "Believe" brings the Auto-Tune front and center.

Auto-Tune sounds like digital stretching or flexing, as you hear a singer kind of slide up and down the register in a way that doesn't sound natural. And though the tactic is used seemingly arbitrarily in today's pop soundscape, the impetus for music's infatuation with Auto-Tune can be traced back to Cher's dance pop song from 20 years ago. The deliberate distortion of her vocals could have been perceived as a gimmick, but, decades later, the success behind "Believe" lives on”.

There are a couple of features that I am going to bring in that talk about the background to Believe and how this megahit was born (I would also recommend people check out this feature too). Apologies for any repetition and crossover, but I do think that each article offers something new and different. I will start with Stereogum’s article. Even if they are feel there were better Dance songs of the '90s, there is no denying that few came bigger than Cher’s Believe:

“In 1989, Cher released Heart Of Stone, the biggest album of her career to that point. Heart Of Stone is top-shelf late-’80s corporate rock. It went triple platinum, and it launched three singles into the top 10. The biggest of those hits was the Diane Warren belter “If I Could Turn Back Time,” which was the first time that Cher’s name ever really impressed itself into my kid brain. In the song’s video, Cher famously straddled cannons and danced across a battleship deck in an ass-tattoo-baring thong while sailors cheered her on. (“If I Could Turn Back Time” peaked at #3; it’s a 9.)

Cher went into another career lull after Heart Of Stone, and she didn’t land another top 10 hit for nearly a decade after “Just Like Jesse James” peaked at #8. (That one is a 7.) In the early ’90s, Cher came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, which made acting and recording difficult. So she made a couple of fitness videos and became an infomercial pitchwoman. That infomercial gig led to Christina Applegate clowning Cher on Saturday Night Live.

In 1998, Cher’s ex-husband Sonny Bono, who’d gone on to become a Republican Congressman, died in a skiing accident at the age of 62, and Cher gave a tearful eulogy at his funeral. At that point, Cher was not a terribly relevant pop artist. Her previous album, 1995’s It’s A Man’s World, bricked, and it only sent one single into the Hot 100. (“One By One” peaked at an anemic #52.) When Warner UK boss Rob Dickins got the idea that Cher should record a dance album, he signed her to the UK branch of the label, and the idea was that her next album would only come out in Europe. Cher herself wasn’t into the idea of a dance album, since she didn’t think the genre had any good songs. Dickins set out to find one.

The British songwriter Brian Higgins, who eventually founded the production group Xenomania and made UK hits with groups like the Sugababes and Girls Aloud, had started writing “Believe” years earlier, when he had a go-nowhere office job at a paper company in Sussex. Eventually, Higgins broke into the music business. He co-wrote and co-produced 1997’s “All I Wanna Do,” a UK hit for Kylie Minogue’s sister Dannii. On a visit to the Warner office, Higgins ran into Rob Dickins, who asked if he had any songs for Cher. Dickins sent a tape over, and a version of “Believe,” a song that Higgins had been tinkering with for years, caught Dickins’ attention.

After “Believe” hit, Rob Dickins told The New York Times what he’d heard in the song: “I thought: ‘Cher could do this chorus, especially the lyrics, with her private life the way it is. She’s gone through all these things.'” By that point, Brian Higgins had already enlisted a bunch of collaborators to work on “Believe,” and it already had four songwriters. Dickins loved the chorus but thought the verses were trash. He told Higgins that he was taking “Believe” away from him: “You’ve done no justice to your own song.” A bunch of other songwriters went to work on “Believe” before Dickins thought it was acceptable. By the time it reached #1, “Believe” had six songwriters — not including Cher, who’d changed at least one line herself but who went uncredited.

Another team that had submitted songs for the Cher album was the duo of Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, two British producers who had also done some work with Dannii Minogue. For whatever reason, Dickins decided that the two of them should produce the bulk of Cher’s Believe album. She recorded a few tracks with big-deal house-music names Todd Terry and Junior Vasquez, but most of the album came from a few weeks of sessions in Taylor and Rawlings’ dumpy studio in Surrey. (Taylor and Rawlings’ work will appear in this column again.)

When both Rob Dickins and Cher were finally satisfied with “Believe,” it was a song about surviving a shitty breakup and imagining your life afterwards. Cher’s narrator sings the entire song to the person who’s left her. She’s crushed, not sure she’s strong enough to keep going, but she comes to a couple of big epiphanies. By the time the song is over, she’s gotten it together enough to move on: “I’ve had time to think it through/ And maybe I’m too good for you.” (Cher apparently wrote that line, and it’s the best line in the song.) She believes in life after love.

There’s a light sprinkling of guitar in “Believe,” but Taylor and Rawlings put together most of the track in the digital program Cubase, and virtually everything in there is electronic. The track shamelessly dials up the sound of cheesed-out Euro-house, and Cher commits to that style. Cher had been making records for decades before anyone could’ve even conceived of Auto-Tune, which weirdly makes her the perfect singer to bring that sound to the masses. Cher belts the hell out of the chorus, and her voice is deep and rich and distinctive. But for whatever reason, it sounds better when it’s been digitally diced into atoms.

Taylor and Rawlings tried out the zero effect Auto-Tune setting when they were messing around with Cher’s vocals in the studio late one night. They were afraid that she would reject that filter right away, but she loved it, even demanding that the duo delete her original vocal tracks. When Rob Dickins demanded that the effect be taken off of the vocals, Cher absolutely refused: “I said, ‘You can change that part of it, over my dead body!’ And that was the end of the discussion. I said to Mark before I left, ‘Don’t let anyone touch this track, or I’m going to rip your throat out.'” For a while, Taylor and Rawling lied about the Auto-Tune, claiming that they’d achieved that effect with a Digitech Talker vocoder pedal, but the truth eventually came out.

These days, we mostly remember “Believe” as the song that introduced that freaky Auto-Tune effect into the world. For that alone, “Believe” is hugely historically significant. I’d originally planned to include a chapter on “Believe” in my book, which comes out in November and highlights 20 pivotal #1 songs, but then I decided to devote that chapter to someone who pushed the whole Auto-Tune thing even further. The effect definitely lends a weird novelty to “Believe,” which is otherwise, I think, a pretty average Euro-dance track. It’s catchy, and I like the interplay between Cher’s grand belting and the swooshing robot sounds around her, but the song always sounded a little thin and brittle to me.

There were better dance tracks coming out in the late ’90s, but there weren’t any bigger ones. “Believe” went to #1 in the UK first, and when Warner decided to release the track in America, it took off just the same. When “Believe” reached #1 here, it followed three chart-toppers from literal teenage girls — Brandy, Britney Spears, Monica. Cher was almost as old as the three of them put together. Britney Spears had ended her debut album Baby One More Time with a cover of “The Beat Goes On,” a song that Sonny and Cher had released all the way back in 1967. Cher was a relic, a boomer icon. With “Believe,” she didn’t just compete with the new wave of teenage pop stars; she beat them. Billboard eventually named “Believe” the biggest hit of 1999. (As it happens, The Matrix opened in theaters while “Believe” sat at #1 in the US. The pre-Y2K zeitgeist was very into the idea of “what if everything real is really fake because technology?”)”.

Before getting to some reviews for Believe, The New York Times’ article from 1999 talks about this ‘resurrection’ of Cher. A legendary artist that many felt was past her very best, she proved everybody wrong! You look out to artists such as Kylie Minogue doing the same thing. They can remain relevant and contemporary decades after their beginnings. Believe arrived near the end of an incredible decade for music. An anthem that is still played widely to this day, it is interesting how it came to life and formed over time:

“Believe'' began nine years ago in a small flat in Sussex, England. Brian Higgins had returned home from his job selling advertising space for Reed, a paper company. He was 23, and trying to teach himself how to write songs. He sat at one of the keyboards in the far end of his bedroom, lifted his fingers to play a few chords and it happened. ''The lyrics and the melody just flowed out at the same time,'' he said. ''Normally you play a few chords, establish a melody and then start to apply a few lyrics. But this time, I promise you, the whole thing came out at once, which is really weird.''

Five years later Mr. Higgins's career began to blossom, and he started getting odd jobs with such pop stars as Diana Ross, Dannii Minogue and Pulp. Practically every time Mr. Higgins met with an artist, manager or record executive he played them his unborn dance song, ''Believe.'' But no one showed the slightest interest. Mr. Higgins knew the song wasn't perfect; the choruses were great but the verses were only skeletal. As he began gathering his own team of songwriters, he had them tinker with the verses every so often. But no matter what they did there were no takers.

In the meantime, Rob Dickins, president of London-based Warner Music U.K., had decided that the only thing Cher could do to make up for her last album, ''It's a Man's World,'' a set of rock ballads that sold disappointingly, was to focus on her gay audience with a high-energy dance record. Mr. Dickins, who would oversee the album, was in his 27th year with the company, and this would be his last project with Warner Brothers. He did not know it at the time, but he was on the verge of being dismissed.

''He said, 'I want you to make a dance album,' '' Cher said the other day in a telephone interview from Paris. ''I said I didn't want to. But I have that problem: If someone says I want you to do something and I'm not sure, I usually just say I don't want to do it.''

Cher said she was not interested in dance music anymore because it was not a genre with real songs. Mr. Dickins walked away, intent on finding real songs to disprove her argument. That was when luck intervened, and a chance encounter set the wheels in motion that would make Cher a pop star again. Mr. Higgins was visiting Warner Brothers to talk about the Minogue album he had worked on. As he waited outside the office of an executive who was on the phone, Mr. Dickins happened to walk downstairs and down the corridor, where he met Mr. Higgins.

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Mr. Dickins asked the songwriter if he would be interested in submitting a song or two for consideration for the Cher album. Three days later, a tape with 16 of Mr. Higgins's songs arrived. ''I lay on my bed and put the tape on and listened to every song,'' Mr. Dickins said. ''The ninth song was 'Believe.' I thought: 'Cher could do this chorus, especially the lyrics, with her private life the way it is. She's gone through all these things.' ''

Mr. Dickins called the songwriter the next day and asked him to complete ''Believe.'' ''About a week later he comes in with the finished song and it's terrible,'' Mr. Dickins said. ''I've got this great chorus and this terrible song. So I told him, 'We're taking it away from you.' He says, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'You've done no justice to your own song.' ''

Mr. Higgins handed over the song, admitting that he was probably too close to it. Meanwhile Mr. Dickins had found a song for the album called ''Dove l'Amore,'' which was written by Paul Barry and Mark Taylor, an English songwriting team. Cher visited their studio in a suburb west of London with the intention of recording only that song. She said she remembered the studio, called Metro, as ''this little dungeon of a place, the smallest studio I've ever been in in my life.'' Even Mr. Dickins had second thoughts about the place: ''I went down and saw Cher sitting in this horrible room on this horrible sofa and thought, 'What have I done to her?' '' But the chemistry was good.

When Mr. Dickins sent ''Believe'' to Metro studios a staff songwriter, Steve Torch, took a crack at the verses. Mr. Dickins was not happy with the result. ''I said, 'What is wrong with all you people? I've got a hit chorus and none of you can write a song,' '' he said.

Brian Rawling, the producer who runs Metro, begged for another chance and got it, handing the song to Mr. Barry, who kept hitting brick walls. ''I remember one version in particular that Cher didn't like,'' Mr. Barry said. ''My son had just been born and I was ecstatic. One lyric Cher said was total garbage. She said, 'You're too happy.' ''

Try, Try Again,

And Again and Again

It was during this time that Mr. Dickins was asked to leave his job at Warner Brothers as a result of a personality clash with Bob Daly, a chairman of Warner Brothers and Warner Music. That this album would be his last word at Warner Brothers was ''probably why I was so relentless with the song,'' Mr Dickins said.

(Last month, a fellow ad salesman and songwriting partner, Mark Scott, sued Mr. Higgins and Warner Music, saying he helped write ''Believe' in 1991.)

Finally Mr. Barry's partner, Mr. Taylor, turned in a version good enough to begin working on. The lyrics began to match the strength of the chorus. The first verse now ended: ''It's so sad that you're leaving/It takes time to believe it/But after all is said and done/You're going to be the lonely one.''

Mr. Barry began putting together the music, starting with a rough drum track he made on a computer program called Cubase, a crude keyboard melody and a bass line. He and Mr. Taylor remember trying to make a dance song that was a little different, with subtle melodies and quiet backing vocals tucked away; verses in the style of Lamont Dozier and soulful 80's funk touches influenced by Stevie Wonder and Prince.

But Mr. Dickins was still dissatisfied. He thought the eight-bar section of the song, known as the middle eight, before the final chorus which simply repeated the lyric ''I don't need you anymore,'' was too repetitive and didn't take the song anywhere. This time he was ignored. But Cher had a more pressing problem. She said the second verse was simply a repetition of the ''so sad that you're leaving'' sentiment expressed in the first one. ''I thought, 'You can be sad for one verse, but you can't be sad for two,' '' Cher said. ''That night I was lying there in my bathtub with my toe in that little faucet, playing around with the words, and it came out in one line. I thought, 'I've had time to see it through/Maybe I'm too good for you.' ''

But when the song was finished the verses still seemed lifeless, no matter how many different ways Cher sang them. And that was when luck smiled on ''Believe'' again.

One morning Cher turned on her television set and saw a program featuring a singer named Andrew Roachford, whose CD she instantly bought.

'We were tackling 'Believe' for the gazillionth time,'' she said. ''And I said: 'I'm so tired of doing this. Let's just put on this CD and listen to music and get away from this.' '' On one song the vocals were processed through a vocoder to sound mechanical. Cher remembers suggesting that they add something like that to ''Believe.''

In the interim a new voice-tuning program for Cubase had arrived in the studio, and Mr. Taylor decided to teach himself how to use it. He randomly chose two bars of ''Believe'' and looped it on the computer. In his tinkering, he came across the wavering, soulful, robotic vocal sound that is now the song's most loved and recognizable element. But he was afraid that if Cher heard it, she would object to his experimenting with her vocals. ''But something just snapped, and a couple of beers later we decided to play it for her, and she just freaked out,'' he said.

Victory

And a High-Five

That is, freaked out in a good way. ''We high-fived,'' Cher said. ''It was like some stupid 'Rocky' film.'' When Cher left the studio to begin filming ''Tea With Mussolini'' Mr. Taylor put together a quick mix of ''Believe'' and sent it to Cher and Mr. Dickins, who thought they had gotten carried away with the robotic sound.

''He said, 'Everyone loves that song but wants to change that part of it,' '' Cher said. ''I said, 'You can change that part of it, over my dead body!' And that was the end of the discussion. I said to Mark before I left, 'Don't let anyone touch this track, or I'm going to rip your throat out.' “

I will end with some reviews for Believe. The standout cut from the Believe album, there is no doubt, at the time in 1998 and years since, this titanic hit has resonated and resounded far and wide. Those who were too young to remember the song the first time around are discovering it now:

“Upon the release, Chuck Taylor from Billboard said that it is "the best darn thing that Cher has recorded in years". He added, "Some songs are so natural, so comfortably sung, that you wonder that somebody didn't think them up decades before. With this, you'll be whirling around the floor, tapping hard on the accelerator to "Believe," a simple ode to those feelings that we all search out and cling to. Cher is just a prize here; even her hardy detractors will be fighting the beat on this one." Music critic Robert Christgau highlighted "Believe" as the best song on the album. A reviewer from Entertainment Weekly described the song as "poptronica glaze, the soon-to-be club fave..." and noted Cher's voice as "unmistakable". Deborah Wilker from Knight Ridder said that "her electronically altered vocal" on "Believe" "is like nothing she's ever done."

Knight Ridder also described the song as "present-tense disco, with Cher an anthemic, Madonna manqué." New York Daily News described the song as a "club track so caffeinated, it not only microwaved her cold career to scorching-hot but gave dance music its biggest hit since the days of disco." They also noted the song's "killer hook and amazing beat." Neil Strauss from The New York Times wrote that "the verses are rich and bittersweet, with the added gimmick of breaking up Cher's voice through an effect that makes her sound robotic. And the choruses are catchy and uplifting, with Cher wailing, "Do you believe in life after love?" All of it bounces over a bed of 80s-style electronic pop. It is a song with a universal theme—a woman trying to convince herself that she can survive a breakup". Another editor, Jim Sullivan, noted the track as a "hooky, defiant, beat-fest of a song".

 “In 2019, Bill Lamb from About.com declared it as a "perfect piece of dance-pop", including it in his list of "Top 10 Pop Songs of 1999". AllMusic editor Joe Viglione called "Believe" a "pop masterpiece, one of the few songs to be able to break through the impenetrable wall of late 1990s fragmented radio to permeate the consciousness of the world at large." Another editor, Michael Gallucci, gave a lukewarm review, writing that the Believe album is an "endless, and personality-free, thump session". Stopera and Galindo from BuzzFeed noted it as "iconic", featuring it in their "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s" in 2017. Damon Albarn, frontman of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, called the song "brilliant".

In 2014, Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger wrote that "Believe" "is a record in the "I Will Survive" mode of embattled romantic defiance – a song to make people who've lost out in love feel like they're the winners." He added that "it's remarkable that it took someone until 1998 to come up with "do you believe in life after love?", and perhaps even more remarkable that it wasn't Jim Steinman, but the genius of the song is how aggressive and righteous Cher makes it sound." Bob Waliszewski of Plugged In said that Cher "musters self-confidence to deal with a failed romance". In 2018, Dave Fawbert from ShortList described "Believe" as a "really great pop song with, as ever, an absolute powerhouse vocal performance from Cher".

One of those songs that everybody knows and still holds weight to this day, there is no doubting how influential it was for artists coming through. If it does divide some people, Believe has ranked high in lists of the best songs from the '90s. Iconic Dance hits. As I said, it is played a lot today. It has endured and started this new wave of affection and recognition for Cher. In the same year Madonna had this renaissance with Ray of Light, Cher was modernising and changing her sound - and, with it, she was back in the spotlight. On 19th October, the world will mark twenty-five years of a song that has this great legacy. One simply cannot deny…

IT'S power and importance.

FEATURE: Sidetracked: A New BBC Sounds Podcast, and The Question About ‘Respectful Criticism’

FEATURE:

 

 

Sidetracked

PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels

A New BBC Sounds Podcast, and The Question About ‘Respectful Criticism’

_________

I made a pledge that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Former BBC Radio 1 colleagues Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus are hosting a new BBC podcast, Sidetracked/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephanie Sian-Smith for The Guardian

when I started this blog nearly twelve years ago, I would use it as a way of promoting great new music and being as positive as possible. I only review tracks from artists that I really like. I have had moral quandaries in the past when I have contributed to other websites. When reviewing an album that is perhaps not that good…having a bit of an underwhelmed attitude left me stressed. I think that it is important to be honest with music criticism. Music is subjective, so what one person likes, the other may not. One can debate the value and merit of music reviews on that point, though I feel it is important that music criticism continues. I always hated having to review an album I disliked! It is quite a slog listening to it but, not wanting to be cruel, having to express dislike made me wonder what that artist would think. Is it constructive giving that sort of feedback?! Would they take it too heart and get upset?! I keep things positive with reviews now, so I avoid artists and albums I really don’t want to cover. The radio game very much relies on positivity and keeping any negative views out of the way. Recently, broadcaster and D.J. Arielle Free was pulled off air and briefly suspended from her BBC Radio 1 show for criticising a track played on Charlie Hedges’ show. Live from Ibiza, Free was a special guest on Dance Anthems.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Arielle Free

Giving a new meaning to ‘free speech’, it seems that the BBC ethos and bottom line regarding expressing opinions about tracks is to keep it positive. Any negativity, it seems, is reserved for private. I can appreciate how stations would not want to offend artists and give themselves a bad reputation. After all, that station is playing that song – so why would they do that for a D.J. to slag it?! It is those in higher positions that are ultimately responsible for whom gets played on which station. I regularly listen to BBC Radio 6 Music and, through their schedule, they feature new tracks. I like most of those new songs, yet there are some I can’t stand. Of course, the remit is really the same here. Broadcasters are really obliged to be positive or not say anything at all. I feel for artists trying to get their stuff heard, so getting into a playlist is a big thing. It would seem a bit of a kick in the teeth if their song was highlighted as being bad by a broadcaster. There are singles review shows on some stations where guests can be a bit more free. BBC stations especially are keen for their talent not to express political views. It is about impartiality. When it comes to the music, it is very much about positivity. Even when it comes to older tracks, the vibe really does need to be positive. There have been cases when a broadcaster has had a slight dig or sighed after a song has been played. That is rare.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Freepik

This takes me to the point of this feature: a new BBC podcast, Sidetracked. Available on Sounds from 28th Septrember, it sees broadcaster and old friends Annie Macmanus (Annie Mac) and Nick Grimshaw (Grimmy/Grimmers) unite to have a fresh and almost no-holds-barred look at the week in music. It is a take on the new music and events coming about without the filter and restrictions imposed by their BBC Radio 1 (both used to work for the station). Mac does occasionally broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music. Both still D.J. They have a great chemistry. With decades of radio experience between them, the podcast is a new venture. With the trailer launched yesterday (21st September), this is a podcast that I would recommend. Grimshaw and Macmanus spoke with The Guardian this week about their new venture and what one can expect:

“For both it’s a way of stepping back into radio without any of the usual restrictions. “Music has been work for such a long time so I like the idea of this being from the perspective of a fan,” says Macmanus. “All of the things I didn’t miss about having a radio show – being part of someone else’s agenda, the time involved, and all of the things that started feeling a bit too much – this is the opposite of that. It’s not attached to any network or any radio station specifically. We will talk about, say, Kate Bush. It’s not just youth music.”

“Hey, come on now,” laughs Grimshaw, “we’ve heard of Ice Spice!”

What would they talk about if they had to record an episode today? “It’s the Mercurys this week,” says Macmanus, “so something on that. But it could be anything: from Adele going off at a security guard at her gig, to Beyoncé becoming a mayor of Santa Clara, to Grimmy going to the Proms and having a re-evaluation of his whole life.”

Grimshaw is less specific: “All that stuff that my dad was like ‘it’s a waste of time’, that’s all I want to talk about. Just stuff.”

I witness how an episode could quickly spiral as Grimshaw suddenly remembers getting stuck in the BBC building’s revolving doors with soul newcomer Berwyn. This then leads to a whole section on getting stuck in places with musicians (Macmanus got stuck in a car park in Austria for two hours with Brazilian drum’n’bass legend DJ Marky), before winding up at A$AP Rocky. “He refused to go through the revolving doors and I love the phrase he used,” teases Grimshaw. “He said: ‘I don’t want to go through them because they’re corny.’ Isn’t that fab?” They start thinking about what other mundane things A$AP Rocky might not do. “This is what we’d investigate [in the podcast],” laughs Grimshaw.

“Really important stuff,” adds Macmanus.

The pair are chatty in the way long-term friends are, often finishing each other’s sentences, and while they refer to Sidetracked as indulgent, they’re also aware of the pitfalls of famous-people podcasts and how boring they can become when people just agree and think everything is amazing. “‘Oh, St Barts, eh, remember?’” Grimshaw says in a mock luvvie voice. “I think Annie is always honest, especially about music. Quite a lot of the time we don’t always have the same view. I’ll say: ‘I love this, don’t you?’ And Annie will be like: ‘Not really.’ That makes a good chat.”

“On Radio 1 we haven’t been allowed to … ” starts Macmanus, before remembering that they had a playlist to stick to and so positivity was key, but Grimshaw interrupts.

“I would do a flushing toilet sound over a song if I didn’t like it,” he says.

Macmanus adds: “What I hope will make people interested in the podcast is the transparency and the honesty. If you think something’s terrible you have to be able to say it, in a respectful way”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Artem Sherstnev/Pexels

I wanted to highlight the podcast, though there was also that thing about constructive criticism. I don’t think it is useful or necessary to attack an artist or pour acid on a song. Music is subjective. You can’t mandate a song is worthless or has no place on radio. That said, there is a rather bright veneer across stations. Tracks are always considered to be great! I don’t think all broadcasters across stations feel that. Some songs are a little weak or in need of improvement, yet they cannot have too much flexibility to express anything constructive. The case of Arielle Free recently proved stations do not tolerate one of their own – or guests even - dumping on a track. Even when it is warranted! It does seem a bit of a shame! I sort of think I could not be a broadcaster as I would not hold back in some cases. It is a tough line to follow. I think that it is vital people are open and honest when it comes to music. You do not need to be cruel at all. There is scope to point out anything that can be improved. Or say you don’t like a track. Radio is a great medium for music discovery, yet there is no real challenging or discussion around tracks. Broadcasters do need to be professional in that sense. Keep things respectful to the degree of not daring to annunciate any disapproval. Maybe there is some wiggle room, but there is less freedom and flexibility in that sense than there was decades ago. Perhaps, in a social media age, this is a good thing. I do like when people can challenge one another and have differing opinions on an artist or track.

 PHOTO CREDIT: drobotdean via Freepik

In terms of music news and events, again, the line is to leave the news to the news presenters and not really mention anything controversial in a show. Maybe if an uplifting news story comes around regarding music, then that can be integrated into a show at some juncture. There is so much new music around, it is impossible to like all of it! Indeed, reflecting what is written in the music media, it would be better and more honest if some of that was mirrored on radio. Again, without attacking an artist or being needlessly harsh, having that constructive approach. Stretch that to stories. Having a little more reign to debate or candid. Radio can be too restrictive and afraid of causing a storm. I do feel like there can be respectability with more balance and opposing views. A little more than mere niceness or skipping over something altogether. Such a powerful and influential medium, there are big music news stories and events that, at times, do need calling to attention and getting spotlighted. Maybe something controversial or troublesome, how often are broadcaster allowed to have their say?! Full respect and admiration to radio. It is such a precious medium. I am looking forward to seeing how Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus develop the Sidetracked series and what comes up. Its pitch and prospects did get me thinking about the strictures regarding personal expression when it comes to a track or music story – particularly when it comes to offering anything less than glowing. A topic that could do with expanding and discussing more, is radio a little too constrained and sanitised?! Is it best to keep it that way?! What Sidetracked will provoke is…

PHOTO CREDIT: Shalom Osezua/Pexels

SOME interesting questions.

FEATURE: Vinylism: Coloured Editions, Supply Issues, Anniversary Reissues, and Keeping the Cost Down

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinylism

PHOTO CREDIT: ALTEREDSNAPS/Pexels

Coloured Editions, Supply Issues, Anniversary Reissues, and Keeping the Cost Down

_________

IT seems axiomatic to say…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

that vinyl is very much booming at the moment. There are issues getting enough of it out there. With limited numbers of plants that can make the product, there is also the issue of the supply chain and huge drawbacks affecting some big plants, I wonder what the future of the format looks like. With the environment and the climate catastrophe in the news, retailers and those who make and export vinyl also need to be wary about the carbon footprint they leave. There are a few things I want to talk about. There are supply fears together with the big costs of producing vinyl. Coupled and linked to that, there is this growing demand every year. It also seems like anniversary editions and a range of coloured vinyl might be overtaking and dominating when there are new artists and those who can only feasibly put out one vinyl run/colour that might be getting overlooked. Also, at a time when the vinyl demand and cost might cause bottleneck issues and long-term sustainability obstacles, could CDs and cassettes be more appealing and produced more cheaply in a range of colours and formats? Could, in an age where we need to think about the environment and cost, a new physical format be introduced? Let’s start with some admin, statistics and background. Every year, it is wonderful that we get to rejoice in the success of a physical music format! Digital music is more affordable, readily available and convenient and yet, year-in-year-out, vinyl especially is seeing increased sales. Whether that is legacy artists’ anniversary issues, or classic albums reaching a new demographic, or terrific albums by newer artists bought on vinyl, it does look good for the market. Like me, you will see artists and labels promoting a new vinyl release. Maybe a new album available in a range of colours – such as Kylie Minogue’s TENSION -, or there are bundle options where you can get a cassette, C.D. or vinyl, there are options for those who want something a bit more bespoke or standout. I love the classic black vinyl - though having choices does mean both supply/production challenges and more buying the format. I will come to an article from last year from The Guardian that questioned the necessity and worth of reissuing fifth anniversary editions of albums (and whether we will get to a stage where artists put out a one-year anniversary release!).

 PHOTO CREDIT: BMG

First, from last year, GRAMMY wrote about a vinyl shortage that was worrying the industry., Whilst I think there has been some progress and resolution, there are still supply problems and a relative shortness. I do wonder, against this appreciation of vinyl and the resultant booming sales, how manufacturers and even record shops can keep up with demand – and prioritise which albums they stock and whether a lot of the sales and options are online:

“How Is The Vinyl Shortage Affecting Record Stores?

Harvest Records' Capon says that at least half of his store's inventory is new vinyl, with about 30 percent used records and a mere 20 percent compact discs. Generally, stocking records isn't a problem. "Since the resurgence began, there are more records than ever being pressed," he observes. It's only when trying to stock specific titles that a problem arises.

"There don't seem to be any issues getting the new Harry Styles or Adele in whatever quantity you want," says Jim Henderson of California retailer Amoeba Music. "The problem affects particular titles," agrees Capon, adding that catalog albums are particularly affected by shortages."Say, Nirvana's Nevermind or The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream is gone right now, but in their place is something that was unavailable before.'"

But even when a certain title is ostensibly available, getting enough copies to meet consumer demand is not a given. Shipments to stores often include less than what was ordered. "We'll order 10 and get three," Capon says. When that happens enough times, a store buyer might decide to order more than he or she needs, just to get the desired number of records. "Sometimes that works out. But sometimes, ‘Oh, we got the full 25. Now what are we going to do?'" he continues.

PHOTO CREDIT: KoolShooters/Pexels

Larger retailers face the same obstacles, albeit on a larger scale. Amoeba often schedules pre-orders for upcoming, high-demand titles. "We'll have a commitment to get a certain amount of titles in to be able to feed that and still have plenty for the store," says Amoeba's Henderson. "Then there's the reality: when we open up the box, we got a percentage of what we were expecting to get. It's challenging when you think you're getting 90 of something and get 14 [instead]. Pressing plants simply can't produce enough records quickly enough – and in sufficient numbers – to meet demand.

Major music retailers like Amoeba Music offer a more diversified range of products including CDs and other merchandise, so they're less affected by vinyl shortages. New vinyl represents about 20 percent of the California chain's inventory, which offers a significant selection of used records and CDs. But the store isn't completely immune from the negative effects of having to tell a customer they don't have a given title.

"It affects us the way it would affect any retailer trying to get what people want into their hands," Henderson explains. "One of the challenges we face is finding a way to articulate that it's not for a lack of effort." He says that if a customer comes up empty-handed when looking for a specific vinyl record, they might infer that "maybe we're not trying to get that title, or that it's bad buying." To counter that misapprehension, Henderson says that Amoeba makes a point of using social media to announce when titles come back into stock.

Why Are Vinyl Records So Expensive?

Some of the perceived high cost of vinyl records can be explained by a combination of inflationary pressures and the passage of time. During vinyl's heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s, customary list price for a single-disc LP ranged from $5.98 to $8.98. Adjusting only for inflation, that $8.98 record that sold in 1982 can be expected to sell for $26.63 today.

But inflation doesn't explain away the cost differential. "A standard new record for a major artist can cost $45," says Kevin Smokler, co-director of the new documentary film Vinyl Nation. "It probably shouldn't cost $45; we're basically paying people the same way we did in 1975." He believes the disparity between consumer wages and prices "creates an unequal system [in which] people without access to resources are second class citizens. And we don't like that at all."

Some consumers agree with that sentiment. "There is a backlash happening," observes Harvest Records co-owner Mark Capon. "People don't want to pay $40 for a new Harry Styles record. They'll say, ‘I'm just going to stream it.'" He believes that when the prices soar to excessive levels, neither the consumer, retailer or record company wins. "New vinyl prices have gotten prohibitively expensive; if you're a working person with limited expendable income, you're getting priced out."

Alex Cushing asks a rhetorical yet relevant question. "What's the ceiling for a record for the consumer?" He notes that when he sees a black vinyl record with a $35 price tag, he grimaces. "But we grew up in a world of $9.99," he says. Younger record buyers may have entered the marketplace when vinyl sold for $22. "For them, $30 isn't a major increase."

Cushing emphasizes that quality can make or ruin the experience of buying a record. "$30, and you open the record and it's not great — and it's eight months later than you wanted it — then I'm not sure [you're] buying a second record."

Vinyl records are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), a petroleum-based plastic. And as Gar Ragland of Citizen Vinyl observes, petroleum-based products have been increasing in price. Since his plant opened in 2020, Ragland says that the price of PVC "has increased three times. We have had to pass that coast along, adjusting our price to our clients accordingly. And I imagine every other pressing plant has done the same." He notes that because of high demand, there has been relatively little resistance from record companies. "It's just the cost of doing business," he says.

In addition to the increasing cost of raw materials, "the real fluctuating cost is shipping and transportation," says Cushing. Acknowledging the current high price of petroleum (and derivative products like PVC), he emphasizes that "it's really nothing in relation to freight costs." Choosing his words carefully, he says, "that industry has seemed to allow itself the most leeway in supply-and-demand pricing."

Still, the issue is a complex one. While many manufacturing processes are partially or completely automated, the pressing of vinyl records remains a labor-intensive process with many manual steps. "The way we make records now is basically how we've been making records forever," says Vinyl Nation co-director Christopher Boone. "It hasn't really changed. It's focused on human beings at many different stages: cutting the lacquers, doing all the plating, actually pressing the records. And that costs money. Then, if you want really cool packaging, that too costs money."

What Does The Future Of Vinyl Look Like?

After a decade-plus without vinyl records, the resurgence that began in the early 21st century shows no sign of subsiding. "As we've spoken with our customers, there seems to be a lot of confidence that the reasons people are buying vinyl are real and sustainable," says United Record Pressing's Mark Michaels.

He notes that vinyl records are now seen as a complement to streaming and digital consumption, and the retail channels support that. "You're seeing a lot of titles sold in Target and Walmart," Michaels observes. "And they're having success. When those retailers get behind a title or category, the orders are enormous."

He acknowledges that the responsibility for filling those orders falls upon manufacturers like United. "If we're going to be a legitimate supply chain partner to the major labels, we better be able to turn large orders fast with service levels that are in line with what they need.

"I don't have a crystal ball," Michaels says. "But I'm a believer."

Alex Cushing acknowledges the challenges but expresses cautious optimism coupled with a sense of urgency. "We have a short window to fix the problems," he says. "And unfortunately, not all these problems are under our control, so I think there are some choppy waters out there. But I think the conditions look favorable."

Bryan Ekus makes note of market forces: "As long as [consumers] are willing to pay $30 for a black record, demand should continue." Amoeba's Henderson makes a similar observation from the retail perspective. "We are concerned that at a certain point, the price tag is going to be detrimental to the collectors," he says. "But the product is such a good product, and people are engaging with it in different ways, so I'd like to think that a few years from now, we'll see steadier fills and consistent access.

Mark Capon of Harvest Records emphasizes that vinyl records aren't a fad. "I think they'll be here for a long time," he says. "And I'm happy about that”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Haupt/Pexels

There does appear to be this continued mixture of streaming and physical sales. People are still streaming a lot, yet the hunger for physical music has not declined. Indeed, I wonder whether there could be a riise in other physical formats as people have less disposable income or want to buy more albums on physical formats – and they feel vinyl is more of a treat when it comes to cost. Music Week reported in July how there is this encouraging appreciation and need for vinyl albums:

“Music Week’s analysis is based on exclusive market figures and sales data from the Official Charts Company and the BPI.

According to BPI data, the half-year results show that album equivalent sales (AES) reached 89,755,479 for the first six months.

The increase marks an acceleration of growth at a time when there had been concerns that a maturing streaming market like the UK might be experiencing a slower rate of increase.

The latest Goldman Sachs Music In The Air report underlined the lower rate of UK streaming growth in recent years.

But so far in 2023, streaming growth has surged into double digits again, with the half-year total for streaming equivalent albums (SEA) up 11.3% year-on-year to 79,241,502. That compares with annual growth of 8.7% at the mid-way point last year, and 8.2% for the full year in 2022.

The second quarter was the driver of growth with album equivalent sales (AES) up 11.1% year-on-year and streaming equivalent albums (SEA) up 12.7%. Physical sales actually increased 3.3% year-on-year in Q2, although that was largely down to CD sales being flat in the quarter. Vinyl was up 10.2% in the quarter.

According to the half-year figures, physical sales were flat – down just 0.3% to 7,795,714 – as growth in LPs offset the 5.8% decline in CD sales. For that six-month period, vinyl sales increased by 12.4% year-on-year to 2,714,642 units.

Despite some hype about the format, cassette sales have slipped back in 2023, down 18.2% year-on-year to 73,204 units. However, the format clearly has its uses, not least in helping Kylie Minogue to secure her first solo Top 10 single since 2010.

Sophie Jones, BPI CSO & interim CEO, said: “With demand for LPs up by over 12% across the first six months and CD sales showing signs of stabilising, the physical market is in encouraging shape considering the economic backdrop and the challenges facing the creative sector. It underlines the importance of continuing to push for growth and supporting talent around the country so that even more artists can benefit from the growth in streaming and vinyl.”

The physical market is in encouraging shape considering the economic backdrop and the challenges facing the creative sector

Sophie Jones

The sales performance by vinyl includes another successful year for Record Store Day. Vinyl revenue outperformed CD for the first time last year, according to ERA.

There has also been positive news for physical music sales with HMV’s plan to bring back its London flagship store.

The strong performance for vinyl was led by new releases by Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, Gorillaz, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Foo Fighters and Boygenius.

Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Polydor) moved 28,119 vinyl copies in the first six months of the year. The album is No.26 overall so far this year (78,213 sales).

Second place for vinyl sales went to Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (EMI) on 20,019 units.

IN THIS PHOTO: Lewis Capaldi/PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Gavillet

Catalogue consumption

The vinyl sales rankings are geared towards new and current releases. The Top 8 albums were released or reissued in 2023, with the exception of Taylor Swift’s Midnights (EMI), and even that is still a current release (from October 2022).

Vinyl perennials Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd make up the rest of the Top 10 sellers for the format so far this year.

In contrast, the overall albums sales rankings (covering all formats, including the dominant streaming consumption) have five catalogue titles in the Top 10 for the half-year. That includes the biggest-selling album of the first six months, The Weeknd’s 2021 collection The Highlights (Island/XO/Republic) on 210,533 sales.

The Weeknd is joined by other collections including Elton John’s 2017 release Diamonds (EMI/UMR) at No.5, Eminem’s Curtain Call – The Hits (Polydor) at No.7 and Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years – Don’t Stop (Rhino) at No.9. The Elton John release received a boost from a legendary Glastonbury performance and new vinyl edition.

In the Official Charts Company’s half-year albums rankings, EMI-signed Lewis Capaldi has two entries in the Top 10: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent at No.6 (136,987 sales for the half-year) and debut LP, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent at No.10 (118,383 sales for the half-year) – the fifth catalogue title in the upper echelons.

Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent – the fastest-selling album of the year to date – is the biggest 2023 release so far. In the most recent chart, it rebounded 16-3 following Capaldi’s Glastonbury performance.

Other current releases in the half-year Top 10 are: Taylor Swift’s Midnights (No.2), Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (No.3), SZA’s SOS (No.4) and Ed Sheeran’s – (Subtract) at No.8.

For Nos.11-20 in the half-year albums rankings, nine out of 10 titles are catalogue releases including perennials and pre-2022 releases by Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran (both Equals and Divide), ABBA, Oasis, Taylor Swift (1989 and Lover), Queen and Olivia Rodrigo. Pink’s Trustfall is the only 2023 release between 11-20.

For the half-year Top 20, it means that 70% of entries are catalogue titles – the same proportion for the overall Top 20 albums of 2022. The degree to which streaming subscribers are maxing out on old favourites is contributing to the absence of Top 100 breakthroughs, as catalogue crowds out new talent with 2023 debuts…

UK breakthroughs

The biggest UK debut breakthroughs for the first six months are UK rapper Clavish’s mixtape Rap Game Awful (Polydor) at No.68 (48,060) and Raye’s My 21st Century Blues (Human Re Sources/The Orchard) at No.97 (39,287).

Mimi Webb’s debut album Amelia (RCA) is at No.130 (33,581).

Raye’s UK No.1 single Escapism feat. 070 Shake is the second biggest of the first six months on 850,748 sales. It became The Orchard’s first No.1 single earlier this year.

PinkPantheress has also made a singles chart impact with Boy’s A Liar (Warner Records), which is at No.4 overall (730,466).

Messy In Heaven (Columbia) by Venbee & Goddard is at No.11 (541,204).

EMI’s global streaming star Mae Stephens is at No.50 for the first half of 2023 with debut single If We Ever Broke Up (273,608 sales).

Miley Cyrus’ Flowers (RCA) is the biggest single (1,248,655) of the year so far and the only track to pass a million sales in 2023.

Read about the ABBA catalogue campaign – winner at the Music Week Awards 2023”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alina Vilchenko/Pexels

I want to conclude with a summary of where vinyl is now and what role cassettes, C.D.s and other possible formats could play. I think a lot of what is driving vinyl sales and appeal is that range of colours. People almost buying vinyl as a collector’s item. It can mean that many artists are having to do this to keep up with larger acts. Perhaps there is an element of the appearance of the vinyl swaying people more than the music. I have no doubt people love vinyl, though I am concerned people might be buying several copies/formats because of the look/coolness of it. Some superfans do it through love of an artist, mind. We want people to support as many artists – established and rising – as they can. Also, there are so many anniversary releases. I love a classic or revered album coming back, maybe with some extras or in a range of colours. It does mean that younger fans might be experiencing that album for the first time . With supply issues being a problem, is releasing a fifth anniversary edition of an album contributing to the problems out there?! The Guardian wrote about this last year:

“The remarkable resurgence of vinyl has been one of the biggest stories in the music industry of the past few years. The once-dead format has seen exponential sales growth, with 5.3m records being sold in the UK in 2021 – the highest volume since 1990, roughly when CD sales began to outpace other formats – and record sales in the US up 15.6% year-on-year in the first few weeks of 2023. This Saturday’s Record Store Day will see the usual yearly clamour for limited vinyl editions, with over 400 records by the likes of the 1975, Taylor Swift, Ellie Goulding and more set to go on sale.

Keen to make the most of a seemingly steady revenue stream, labels have begun increasing production on limited and deluxe repressings of popular albums. Anniversary reissues – once only common to recently remastered records, or albums several decades old – are now becoming popular for releases that are just five years old, such as Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, Phoebe Bridgers’ Stranger in the Alps, Lucy Dacus’ Historian and Idles’ Brutalism. They’ve all been repressed in coloured formats or with alternate sleeves in the past two years, often at a slightly increased price point to standard black discs.

 It’s in keeping with a frantically shortening nostalgia cycle that’s seen frenzied media coverage of supposed emo and “indie sleaze” revivals and music publications churning out cheap anniversary content – although these repressings seemingly offer little to the consumer other than a coloured disc. But Hannah Carlen and Ali Murphy – marketing directors for heavy-hitting indie conglomerate Secretly Group, which released Bridgers’ album – insist that fifth anniversary pressings allow artists to “give new fans something, and say ‘you’re welcome here too – you don’t have to be a day one fan’,” says Carlen.

Bridgers’ album hadn’t been repressed on coloured vinyl – demand for which vastly outstrips black vinyl – since 2019. In the intervening years, she broke through to the mainstream with her second album Punisher and found a swathe of new fans thanks to collaborations with Taylor Swift, SZA and Paul McCartney. Last year, it was rereleased in a run of 10,000 “galaxy-coloured” records. An anniversary “acknowledges that there’s been a lot of new fans over that span of time, and maybe they haven’t gotten access to something special, or when they’ve looked for it on eBay it’s $200,” says Carlen. (Original coloured pressings of Stranger have sold for upwards of £600 on the vinyl resale website Discogs.) “We don’t want to relegate people to a crazy inflated secondhand market.”

Lawrence Montgomery, managing director of Rough Trade record shops, concurs: anniversary pressings with alternate covers or vinyl colours, he says, are in tune with “demand from customers for unique vinyl pressings”.

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

“I think it’s about the reaction to streaming and digital consumerism,” he says. “Streaming is really good for vinyl sales because people can discover artists much more easily than they could in the past – when you then want to buy something to reaffirm your love of an artist, you want something more special.” During Covid, he says, many consumers began to use money they would have once spent on gig tickets on vinyl; at the same time, collectors have become “very savvy about finding what the best variant in the market is”.

In a crowded market, a limited edition repressing can also help a record get noticed by music shops with limited stock space. With a different barcode and catalogue number to a standard repressing, distributors can resolicit it for distribution. “The timeline of a record has changed so drastically,” says Ali Murphy. “Twenty years used to be the span of time in which people were celebrating a record, and now it’s got so much shorter, not only due to the quickness of everything coming out.”

IMAGE CREDIT: rawpixel.com via Freepik

For millennial music fans, the boom in anniversary content may feel like an exploitation of their recent youth. But Montgomery says that a younger contingent of fans is rivalling audiophiles and DJs as a significant market for vinyl, thanks to pop artists like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, who turn their albums into collectibles through the release of multiple alternate album covers or disc colours, and #VinylTok, a TikTok tag that creators use to showcase their collections and obsess over special editions. “We’ve done really well this year with Boygenius, Lana Del Rey, Caroline Polachek, Taylor,” he says.

Although coloured vinyl reissues can combat the arguably overinflated secondhand market, some consumers have still perceived a sense of engineered scarcity with the most popular records. Ben Van Woerkom, a 26-year-old record collector from New Zealand, says that he’s felt fatigue seeing how many new variants and anniversary pressings are hitting the market. “I think we’re at a point where we’ll reach too [high a volume] of people talking about and obsessing over what’s best and what’s new,” he says. “People will give up on vinyl altogether – it’ll just implode. I’ve been feeling pretty pessimistic about it. I’m spending too much money trying to get the ‘ultimate collection’, or whatever”.

There are a lot of factors out there that dictate the continuation of vinyl love and climbing sales. New plants being feasible to build, existing ones able to produce vinyl quickly enough and there not being a bottleneck, whether anniversary editions and different-coloured vinyl getting in the way of albums by other artists, the cost of buying an album in the first place, whether the cost of living and environmental issues will limit sales and supply. We all want physical music to thrive and be readily available for decades to come. Modest by comparisons, C.D.s and cassettes are still being bought. As I have written about how we need portable devices to play cassettes. Coloured cassettes are available, though many are bought and not played. A cheaper alternative to vinyl – and not subject to as many production issues and delays -, perhaps there needs to be new focus on the benefit of cassettes. The same with C.D.s. If there are more portable devices and the cost can be kept down, then this could be a possible vinyl alternative. Costs dictate a lot of people’s buying habits, so having a physical format that is somewhere between £10-£12 is vital. I am not sure how possible it is to make C.D.s and cassettes more durable and less fragile – without modifying the design or incurring too much cost -; that would make it more appealing to people who rightly note how vinyl is pretty sturdy and tends to last a bit longer. Innovative projects like Green Vinyl Records are trying to make the format more environmentally responsible. I do wonder whether a new physical format could be invented that is less reliant on plastic. Can be produced more cleanly and, importantly, the cost is less than vinyl.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Swapnil Sharma/Pexels

I think I have speculated before but, back in the day, we had the MiniDisc. They are still about, though they were one of the physical format causalities (discontinued in 2013). Older technology like the iPod and MiniDisc that died because things were becoming more digital are strangely apt and relevant now. Not predictable back then, I think it is time to consider the possibility of either reviving a dead physical format – and making sure there was great artwork on the cover and the physical appeal was there – or considering a new one. So many people love vinyl as it is weighty and you get that big sleeve with the artwork. There is that cute tangible nature of cassettes and C.D.s. Coloured vinyl is eye-catching and interesting, whereas you also get the satisfaction of having the chance to build a collection. Making a physical format tiny might seem more streamlined and convenient, yet you lose something in terms of its physical ‘value’ – how appealing it and the fact that bigger seems better. There does need to be this long-term consideration. There are ways now artists can get maximise income from C.D.s; why there does seem to be this deeper connection with music on a physical format compared to streaming. The reality is vinyl supply cannot always catch up with demand. That issue may only intensify. There does need to be more thought given to making cassettes and C.D.s more appealing and portable devices reissue. Thinking about a new physical format that is ‘green’, portable (but not too tiny), affordable – the £10-£15 mark seems right – and, also, sustainable in terms of its toughness and physical appeal. The vinyl boom is the positive note to end on. How it is become more collectable and appealing to buyers of all ages. How this trend will continue (let’s hope) for years to come! With that news in mind, we can confidently both drop the mic and…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Anton H/Pexels

DROP the needle.

FEATURE: Reaching Out for This Woman’s Work: Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four: The Interviews

FEATURE:

 

 

Reaching Out for This Woman’s Work

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari 

Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Four: The Interviews

_________

ONE of Kate Bush’s…

finest albums., The Sensual World, I feel, is one that is underplayed. Arriving on 17th October, 1989, it came four years after her masterpiece, Hounds of Love. I am going to do a few features on The Sensual World. It is an album where the major tracks such as This Woman’s Work and The Sensual World are played and know, and yet there are deeper cuts that are either unknown or virtually never played. Perhaps less recognisable than Hounds of Love in that sense, I think that The Sensual World is the album where Bush was opening up more. Revealing more of herself through the songs. An album wonderfully sequenced so the bigger songs – The Sensual World, Deeper Understanding and This Woman’s Work – are at the top, middle and bottom. Maybe tracks like Love and Anger and deeper cuts such as Never Be Mine are not as strong as other songs through the albums. I feel that Bush was trying to be a bit more personal and less oblique. More sensual and evocative, there is a whole new world created by her. With its own sound palette and this incredibly rich production throughout (by Bush), we get to bask in some magnificent singing. Bush’s voice sounding more mature and wide-ranging then ever. A cast of terrific musicians adding layers and nuance to each track. Featuring players such as Mick Karn, and a new addition of the Trio Bulgarka on three songs – they would reappear on the follow-up, 1993’s The Red Shoes -, The Sensual World is a classic! Reaching number two in the U.K. and doing well around the world (it got to forty-three in the U.S.), this album’s upcoming thirty-fourth anniversary should be celebrated.

In further features about the album, I will focus on particular songs, and get a sense of how The Sensual World has been received and how it endures. To start, there are some interview from 1989, where Bush was promoting her sixth studio album. At a time when things were changing for her – she was in a new relationship (as far as I confirm date-wise) with Danny McIntosh; Bush in her thirties -, this was an exciting stage of her career. I will bring in a couple of interviews. The first, with Steve Sutherland of Melody Maker, was published in October 1989:

“With her Sensual World LP being hailed as one of this year's best and the single of the same name still high in the charts <This was already untrue at the time this interview was published>, Kate Bush celebrates her triumphant return with Steve Sutherland.

An hour before she tells me I have a lovely energy and just about makes my year, she apologises for keeping me waiting. "I just had to have a fag," she says, dogging a butt in the ashtray. "I was just dying for one." for one."

Something isn't right here. I mean, I don't know who I thought Kate Bush would be when I walked into the downstairs room of Durrant's Hotel where she is drinking tea and, but I didn't think Kate Bush would smoke.

I think perhaps I was expecting her to be like Emma Thompson, a woman whose precocious talent has been critically downplayed because it springs from a privileged background rather than one of strife or suffering; a woman not so much other -worldly as cocooned from the weird old world for her own safety and sanity.

I think I still expected to meet a hippy nymph despite the evidence of my ears. Sitting in the foyer under the influence of her new LP, watching the first, solitary autumn leaf blow in off the street onto the Axminster, and reading symbolism into the American photographer asking for the price labels to be removed from the olde worlde mementoes on show in the Regency cabinets, I must have ignored the fact that only Prince has been more consistently intriguing <More? More ??>, more exuberantly experimental, more willing to take risks for the sake of pure music in the Eighties. Only the pneumatic Purple Rain pumped blood faster than Hounds of Love, only Around the World in a Day repatterned the embroidery of pop with the same haughty disregard for convention as The Sensual World, her seventh LP if you her seventh LP if you count the greatest hits compilation,

I think I thought Kate Bush would be Green and ozone-friendly--all ballet shoes and Laura Ashley frocks. The St. Michael's blouse and slacks, the tiny navy socks and no shoes, the Benson & Hedges freaked me out.

I think I thought of Kate Bush as a precious oasis in a tarnished world, a pearl cast before the swinish hordes. I guess I forgot Kate Bush is a genius.

"I think most people tend to think of me as the weird Wuthering Heights singer--that is definitely the image that's stuck with most people, which I find extraordinary because it's...so long ago."

She laughs and, when she laughs, her cheeks dimple like a Disney chipmunk.

"Extraordinary is a very good word, I think. I don't know why people are still keen on...I don't know why people bother with me."

Really?

"Really."

She's so small, it't extraordinary.

It took Kate Bush four years to make The Sensual World, and we've been given an hour to talk about it. Great.

I think about telling Kate how surprised I am she's so small, or how shocked I am she smokes, but time is not on my side so I decide, instead, to tell her how delighted I am that she's come to the conclusion that the past and the future aren't beyond changing. The album sounds so optimistic in an era when absolutely everything appears to be falling apart.

Kate naturally loves this interpretation, but the fact is that the album is certainly as loaded with dark and pessimistic images and ideas as it is with optimistic ones. In IED's opinion Sutherland has swotted up on what Kate has been saying recently, and is now rephrasing a lot of her own preferences in conversation with her, as though they were his own ideas rather than borrowed ones, precisely in order to ingratiate Kate. It works, and it may even be a good idea, since the other methods of engaging her in conversation have seldom produced great publishable material.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! That's really how I wanted it to be but, talking to a lot of friends and that, they feel it's a dark album."

I didn't think that at all...

"Oh, great."

...I thought some of the situations were dark, but the way they're resolved is optimistic. <What about the way Heads, We're Dancing is "resolved"? What about the way Deeper Understanding is "resolved"? What about the way Never Be Mine is "resolved"?

"Oh, that's great. Thank you. Yes. That's really great. I'm so pleased you heard it like that. You see, for a lot of people it's so complicated to listen to, and that worries me, because I like the idea of people being able to listen to it easily and...uh...I don't want to confuse people but, for some people, it's very hard for them to even take it in, let alone sort of get anything out of it.

"I do think art should be simple, you see. It shouldn't be complicated, and I think, in some ways, this has come across a bit complicated." <This is one of Kate's "new" ideas--opinions which she has not really made prior to 1989, but which she has been repeating in multiple interviews since the release of the new album. IED finds it highly intriguing, because it is so vague and so patently at odds with the way her own art has always been--and continues to be--made.

Maybe that's because, for me, the album's about relationships--the relationship between language and emotion, the relationship between language and music, the relationship between emotion and music and how all this expresses, or more crucially fails to express, the relationship between people. And relationships, as we all know, are never ever easy”.

I would recommend people check out interviews Kate Bush was involved with around The Sensual World. I may have brought these in before, yet it is worth revisiting for this anniversary feature. I will end with an interview from Q. Conducted by Phil Sutcliffe, it was printed in November 1989. There are sections from the interview that caught my eye that I want to highlight:

“This time round, apart from dancing and running, the panacea was the garden at the house she and Del moved into three years ago in Eltham, Southeast London (brother Jay and family live next door; her parents' home still only half an hour away). "I sometimes I think I might as well just be a brain and a big pair of ears on legs, stuck in front of a mixing desk," she says. "But when I took that break from The Sensual World I really got into gardening. I mean, it's literally a very down-to-earth thing, isn't it? Real air. Away from the artificial light. Very therapeutic."

Another renewable source of inspiration has been exotic instrumentation, usually provided by a visit to Dublin and various members of the staunchly traditional folk troupe, The Chieftains, or by turning to brother Paddy (who specialised in making medieval instruments at the London College of Furniture and will knock out the odd koto or strumento de porco as and when). But for The Sensual World she's leavened the Celtic skirl with a bit of Balkan. She first heard the Trio Bulgarka in '86 and was suitably astonished. A year later it dawned on her that their full-throated harmonies might suit her songs. Connections were made through Joe Boyd of Hannibal Records, their UK label, and Kate flew out to Sofia for an entrancing experience of world music.

"They couldn't speak a word of English and I couldn't speak a word of Bulgarian," she says. "Everything went through translators and it didn't matter at all. Lovely working with women, and especially them, they're very affectionate. We tended to communicate through cuddles rather than words. In fact, we could get on perfectly well without the translators. At one point we were talking away in the studio when the translator walked in and we all shut up because she'd suddenly made us self-conscious about what we were doing." The Trio can be heard on three tracks, including the strikingly unlikely setting of Deeper Understanding, a very modern-world song about an alienated woman and her relationship with her computer.

"This is definitely my most personal, honest album," she says. "And I think it's my most *feminine* album, in that I feel maybe I'm not trying to prove something in terms of a woman in a man's world -- God, here we go!" She seems to be wary of provoking a heavy debate about feminism. "On The Dreaming and Hounds Of Love, particularly from a production standpoint, I wanted to get a lot more weight and power, which I felt was a very male attitude. In some cases it worked very well, but.. . perhaps this time I felt braver as a woman, not trying to do the things that men do in music."

The Fog is a brave song. It co-stars Kate's dad on spoken vocals intoning with fatherly/doctorly reassurance, "Just put your feet down child/'Cos you're all grown-up now".

"I started with the idea of a relationship in deep water and thought I could parallel that with learning to swim, the moment of letting go," she says. "When my dad was teaching me to swim he'd hold both my hands, then say, Now, let go. So I would, then he'd take two paces back and say, Right, swim to me, and I'd be, Oo-er, blub, blub, blerb. But I though it was such a beautiful image of the father and child, all wrapped up in the idea of really loving someone, but letting them go, because that's a part of real love, don't you think, the letting go?"

So it's personal about Kate and her father then. It sounds as though it might be personal about her and Del too.

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" She laughs, really amused by her professionally evasive reply. "Have you ever watched Woody Allen being interviewed? Obviously his films are very personal and when the interviewer asks him the 'Has this happened to you then?' question, he's all.. ." She cowers back into her chair, crosses and uncrosses her legs, thrashes about like a speared fish. "Then he'll say, Uh, well, no, I'm just acting out a role. It's ironic, but it's much easier to speak about very personal things to lots of people through a song, a poem or a film than it is to confront the world with them through someone asking questions. Maybe you worry because it's going to be indirectly reported."

Kate Bush leads a quiet, fairly limited life so her options on subject matter my be relatively restricted. Although she has ventured into political issues with Breathing (nuclear war) and The Dreaming (Aborigine rights), she generally declares her own ignorance and refrains from writing songs that would only prove it. But she will often borrow a story and make it her own -- from books (Wuthering Heights, obviously, and Cloudbusting, from Peter Reich's memoir of his father called A Book Of Dreams), TV (Pull Out The Pin was inspired by a documentary about the Viet Cong), or films (the idea for Get Out Of My House came from The Shining).

However, it was a story told by an older friend that sowed the seeds for Heads We're Dancing, a near-disco piece about a night out with Hitler. "Years ago this friend of mine went to a dinner and spent the whole evening chatting to this fascinating guy, incredibly charming, witty, well-read, but never found out his name," she says. "The next day he asked someone else who'd been there who it was. 'Oh, didn't you know? That's Oppenheimer, the man who invented the atomic bomb.' My friend was horrified because he thought he should have given the guy hell, attacked him, he didn't know what.

"But the point was one moment this person is charming, then when you find out who he is, he's completely different. So I thought, Who's the worst person you could possibly meet in those circumstances? Hitler! And the story developed. A woman at a dance before the war and this guy comes up to her tossing a coin with this cocky chat-up line, Heads we're dancing. She doesn't recognise him until she sees his face in the paper later on and then she's devastated. She thinks that if she'd known she might have been able to *get* him and change the course of history. But he was a person who fooled a tremendous number of people and I don't think they can be blamed. It worries me a bit that this song could be received wrongly, though."

It could well be that the musically extended family and extended home of Kate Bush even embrace her feelings for her songs themselves. She has an intimacy with them, a distinctive candour about sensuality and sexuality to which her present album title track is something of a natural conclusion.

It passed more or less unnoticed in her early days that she was casually breaking taboos in every other song. Tricky items on her agenda included incest (brother and sister in The Kick Inside, woman and young boy in The Infant Kiss), homosexuality (Wow, Kashka From Baghdad) and period pains (Strange Phenomena, Kites [sic]). Her sympathetic, non-judgmental approach was probably one of the less obvious reasons why she appealed so strongly to both sexes, but she would occasionally remark that she was grateful the tabloids didn't read lyric sheets. Otherwise she could have been up to her neck in bishops and Mrs. Whitehouse demanding that the nation's children be protected from this filth.

In fact, the moment anyone other than a fan thinks they've spotted a hint of sex in her songs she becomes very hesitant. Once, when she was working on Breathing, an EMI executive walked in to be greeted by the hypnotic "out-in, out-in, out-in" chant. Taking a firm hold on the wrong end of the stick, he asked her how she could even dream of releasing this pornography. The possibility of such gross misunderstandings shakes her faith in the "purity" -- a favourite word -- of what she's doing. But not enough to make her back off.

"Don't you think Art is a tremendous sensual-sexual expression? I feel that energy often.. . the driving force is probably not the right way to put it," she says, still trying to skirt the fnaarr-fnaarr potential of the topic.

Whether or not her speculation about the nature of Art is on the money, she made her own experience of the creative process quite clear with the cover of Never For Ever. A cornucopia of fantastic and real, beautiful and vile creatures -- the products of her imagination -- is shown swirling our from beneath her skirt. At the time, thinking about this and the steamy, masturbatory atmosphere of many of the songs she wrote in her teens such as The Man With The Child In His Eyes and Saxophone Song, she said: "It's not such an open thing for women to be physically attracted to the male body and fantasise about it. I can't understand that because to me the male body is absolutely beautiful.. . Physical masturbation, it's a feeling so bottled up you have to relieve it, as if you were crying."

The Sensual World is a song that translates the old ache to a different level -- with the invaluable help of James Joyce. "I had a rhythm idea with a synth line I took home to work on one night," she says. "While I was playing it this repeated *Yes* came to me and made me think of Molly Bloom's speech right at the end of Ulysses -- which I *have* actually read all through! I went downstairs and read it again, this unending sentence punctuated with 'yeses', fantastic stuff, and it was uncanny, it fitted the rhythm of my song." (The last lines of Molly Bloom's great stream of consciousness read: "then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.")

Although to Kate "it felt like it was meant to happen", when she applied through "official channels" (presumably the Joyce estate) for permission to use it, she was refused. But she wasn't to be deflected. "I tried to write it like Joyce," she says, smiling in self-mockery. "The rhythm at least I wanted to keep. Obviously I couldn't do his style. It became a song about Molly Bloom, the character, stepping out of the page -- black and white, two-dimensional, you see -- and into the real world, the sensual world. Touching things." She declaims exaggeratedly. "The grass underfoot! The mountain air! I know it sounds corny, but it's about the whole sensual experience, this wonderfully human thing. . ."

And lines like "his spark took life in my hand"?

"Yes, it is rather saucy. But not nearly as sexy as James Joyce." She looks concerned again. "I'd be really worried -- there's nothing I can do about it now because it's all part of the process -- but I would be worried if people felt this ambiguity between sensual and sexual”.

On 17th October, one of Kate Bush’s best albums turns thirty-four. The majestic and beautiful The Sensual World is one of the critical favourites. Out of her ten studio albums so far, it always comes in the top five – for the most part anyway! In 2022, SPIN ranked it fourth; Rough Trade placed it third this year; Pink News put it in fifth last year; in 2019, NME ranked it third; Far Out Magazine have it as third-best, whereas Stereogum placed The Sensual World in first in their feature from 2013. Maybe it is subjective or related to time. The Sensual World has aged very well. What we do know is how revered and loved the album is. From its divine title track to lesser-heard songs such as Rocket’s Tail, The Sensual World is…

A true classic.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Girl Group Deep Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: En Vogue in 1991

Girl Group Deep Cuts

_________

NOT related to any anniversary…

 IN THIS PHOTO: All Saints circa 1997

I have been getting back into music from girl groups. A term I have always hated, I am not sure how to rename and reframe the brilliant women whose Pop, Soul and R&B of the '90s and '00s were such a vital part of my musical education when I was a teenager. I am also a fan of those from back in the 1960s and 1970s. To me, we do not really have the same calibre and variety of girl groups. I guess K-Pop groups like BLACKPINK are modern examples. We have FLO in the U.K. The U.S.’s Fifth Harmony are on hiatus at the moment. So too are our Little Mix. The golden age, in my view, was from the late-1980s to early-'90s through to the early-'00s. Legends like TLC, En Vogue, Destiny’s Child, All Saints and, to a slightly lesser extent, Spice Girls released this anthemic and instantly catchy music. With incredible vocal harmonies, killer hooks, and that mix of uplifting tracks and more reflective ballads, we all know the hits from the greats. Whilst the albums are popular, how many of the deep cuts from girl groups does one hear?! Certainly, when you hear TLC or All Saints played, it is usually one of their bigger singles. As I have been exploring the ‘genre’ and, in the course of that, discovering the deep cuts that should be played more, I wanted to put a few into a playlist. Therefore, below is a selection of interesting and varied deep cuts and rarities from some of the best girl groups of all time. I hope that these songs lead you to the groups and their albums. They might not all be to your taste but, as you will hear, one cannot define and limit great girl groups…

TO their hits and chart-toppers.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Suki Waterhouse – I Can't Let Go

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Suki Waterhouse – I Can't Let Go

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I am looking back…

at quite a few albums from last year for Revisiting… This feature is for albums from the past five years that either need some new attention or were underrated when they were released. Suki Waterhouse’s debut album, I Can’t Let Go, got critical love and attention - though I did not feel as many of the mainstream sites and papers reviewed it. So many of the songs should be played on the radio now. It is a great album that album with so many wonderful and memorable moments. I am going to finish with a couple of reviews for Waterhouse’s brilliant 2022 debut. Also check out the follow-up E.P., Milk Teeth. That compiled her non-album singles. I Can’t Let Go came out on 22nd April, 2022. You may recognise Waterhouse from the U.S. drama, Daisy Jones & The Six. The U.S.-based, U.K.-born actor and model is also one of the most interesting and promising artists around. I feel she stands out in a very busy, varied and competitive industry. I will move on soon. First, Rough Trade provide details about Suki Waterhouse’s I Can’t Let Go:

“Nowadays, voice memos, videos, and pictures chronicle our lives in real-time. We trace where we’ve been and reveal where we’re going. However, Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as singer, songwriter, actress but you’ll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Memories of unrequited love, fits of longing, instances of anxiety, and unfiltered snapshots interlock like puzzle pieces into a mosaic of well-worn country, ‘90s-style alternative, and unassuming pop. She writes the kind of tunes meant to be grafted onto dusty old vinyl from your favorite vintage record store, yet perfect for a sun-soaked festival stage. Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can’t Let Go, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter.

In Suki’s words: “The album is called I Can’t Let Go because for years it felt like I was wearing heavy moments on my sleeve and it just didn’t make sense to do so anymore. There’s so much that I’ve never spoken about. Writing music has always been where it felt safe to do so. Every song for the record was a necessity. In many ways, I’ve been observing my life as an outsider, even when I’ve been on the inside. It’s like I was a visitor watching things happen.”

Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music’s magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple, and Oasis held a special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently. Nylon hailed her debut track, “Brutally,” as “what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides, Now’ would sound like.” In addition to raves from Garage, Vice and Lemonade Magazine, DUJOR put it best: “Suki Waterhouse’s music has swagger.” Suki is constantly consuming artists of all stripes, and, in the lead-up to making I Can’t Let Go, she was particularly drawn to the work of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. After falling in love with Hiss Golden Messenger’s Terms of Surrender, she reached out to its producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) to help define the sound of I Can’t Let Go. On I Can’t Let Go, Suki not only catalogs her life up to this point, but she also fulfills a lifelong ambition.

“When I’ve been stuck or feel out of touch with a sense of inner meaning and outer purpose, I’ve found both through searching my memories and finding those events buried in the shadowy areas of the psyche where they were ignored,” she says. “So many times of change in my life have required return visits—especially at the transitions through to the next stages. The album is an exploration of those moments when there is nothing left to lose. What is left and can’t be thrown away is the self”.

This great interview from Rolling Stone UK is worth a read. I am going to start with quoting from an interview between The Guardian and Suki Waterhouse from April 2022. I think that a lot of her fans are wondering whether there will be an E.P. coming before the end of this year – or whether she has plans for a second album next year. She is very much in demand across music and Hollywood right now. I think that the two compliment each other and work well when it comes to Waterhouse’s cinematic songs:

“ This is not a golden era for women writing love songs about men. With the exception of Lana Del Rey, the last decade of female-fronted pop has been defined by revenge anthems and breakup bangers, with “dump him” a common refrain. But Suki Waterhouse isn’t sold.

“I find the whole ‘dump him’ thing very toxic,” she whispers into her oat milk latte in a quiet nook of Notting Hill’s Electric cinema in west London. “I get it, but it’s important not to underestimate how incredible it is to be with somebody. And also how yummy and wonderful masculinity can be when it’s the good kind, when it’s warm and protecting … ” She pauses, smiling knowingly. “Anyway, let’s not go on that tangent!”

This week, Waterhouse is releasing her debut album, I Can’t Let Go, through Sub Pop. Produced by Brad Cook, the man Pitchfork called “indie’s secret weapon” (he has worked on albums by Bon Iver and the War on Drugs), it is 10 tracks of sweeping Americana, with heart-on-sleeve lyrics that land somewhere between Taylor Swift’s simplicity and Del Rey’s fatalism (“I believe in old-fashioned things / Imagining us,” she sings on the lead single, Melrose Meltdown).

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Trippe

“So much of my life has been this weird blur,” says Waterhouse, running her hands through her hair – dishevelled but somehow still immaculate. I ask whether romance is the biggest force behind her songwriting. “It’s literally how I remember everything,” she says. “Who I was in love with at the time, how we broke up, and what happened after.”

Waterhouse has been in the public eye since she was 16, starting her career as a model in the late 2000s. For more than a decade she has been a fixture on runways and magazine covers, a bona fide “it girl”, regularly papped with her friends and fellow models Adwoa Aboah and Cara Delevingne. Then there’s the acting career, which has seen her appear in a mishmash of blockbuster romcoms (Love, Rosie), cult black comedies (Assassination Nation) and documentary-style TV series (the upcoming Daisy Jones & the Six). Throw in a photography exhibition here, an accessories brand there – not to mention a slew of high-profile relationships with the likes of Bradley Cooper, Diego Luna and, currently, the Batman himself, Robert Pattinson.

It is hard not to feel that this latest addition to her pop-cultural portfolio is a little … low stakes? “I’m really aware that it’s like: ‘Oh, you’ve done modelling, you’ve done acting, and now you’re gonna give me this album.’ I’m really wary of people just being like: ‘Fuck off!’” she admits. “I totally get it.”

Rather than manifesting a sudden burst of confidence, I Can’t Let Go came together like a photo album: snapshots of different times, places and people. The breathy acoustic track Slip was written during a trip to Montreal, where she went to work with a chef-cum-musician on the recommendation of someone she met on a night out; the reverb-heavy ballad My Mind was written during the pandemic in her west London flat, where building work meant the windows were blacked out for months; Melrose Meltdown was inspired not by the trip she took with a friend to Bhutan (“We were drinking too much and feeling a bit shit”), but by a text she read on the plane home. “She was showing me some messages and I was moved by her alcoholic ex-boyfriend, who’s really quite a good poet in a way.”

The album has a rose-tinted energy, with restrained backdrops that marry 60s girl-group sentiments with dreamy modern pop and lyrics that would be at home on early 2010s Tumblr – there’s plenty of “crying on your milk-white sheets” and getting “faded into oblivion”. It’s very two drinks into an evening, when emotions are generous and arise as if out of nowhere.

“I definitely approached it thinking quite cinematically,” she says, citing Thelma & Louise and Fruits of My Labor by the country singer Lucinda Williams as inspirations for her goal of making something that “sounds good in the middle of the desert”. Fittingly for the subject matter, the space they were meant to record in fell through and they ended up in a wedding hall, with Cook and members of Bon Iver bringing Waterhouse’s demos to life in a bridesmaids’ room crowded with makeup lights and “Live, Laugh, Love” cushions”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Back in May 2022, Suki Waterhouse chatted with Atwood Magazine about her much anticipated debut. She was gearing up to hit the road appearing alongside the superb Father John Misty. I have a lot of love and respect for Waterhouse’s music. She is singular and distinct as a songwriter and vocalist. I hope to catch her on the road soon:

“It doesn’t really become about you, after a while,” she says of revisiting the past through songwriting and singing. “It’s also about finding a bliss within the good and the bad, (and) finding some kind of way that you’ve found some kind of peace within yourself.”

Waterhouse was inspired to continue putting pen to paper – and to hone in on a signature sound – through her friendship with Dave Sitek, famously of TV On The Radio. His eclectic influence left its mark on Waterhouse’s work. In past years honing her craft, she’d written with a wide cast of characters, but hadn’t quite found a driving influence.

It was a trip to famed Texas recording outpost Sonic Ranch with Sitek pre-pandemic that helped Waterhouse unlock even more of that creativity, working on demos, building bonfires and writing songs.

It was only a matter of time before she connected – via Sitek – with the producer of her debut LP, Brad Cook (you’ve heard his production work on albums by Hiss Golden Messenger and The War on Drugs).

Sitek had previously recorded with Cook via The Neverly Boys.

It was one song in particular by Hiss Golden Messenger – “Cat’s Eye Blue” – that had echoes of what Waterhouse wanted in her album, including “gentle pushes” and “drenched strings.”

Even without ever having met Cook before recording with him, Waterhouse felt things would work out – even if the recording process was delayed by the pandemic.

But the journey to getting the record out into the world wasn’t quite that simple once it was complete, either. Waterhouse didn’t have a label deal, and was ruminating on self-releasing it before landing with Sub Pop.

The multi-hyphenate Waterhouse kept the faith, though – it was right down there in her diary all along.

“If I was to show you the back of my diary pages…I always write down what I hope will happen as if it’s already happened,” Waterhouse says of yearning to sign with an outstanding record label.

Does she feel any pressure signing to a legendary label like the long-running Pacific Northwest stalwarts? Not exactly – gratitude is in no short supply.

“It’s such an amazing surprise and joy,” Waterhouse says. “It’s a new, exciting thing and it’s incredibly thrilling to me.”

The thrills, twists and turns aren’t in short supply, either – last fall, Waterhouse took the stage at two illustrious festivals (Atlanta rock hotspot Shaky Knees and the eclectic BottleRock Napa Valley), playing to the biggest crowds she’d ever seen – a long way from a high school assembly.

“You’re going out there and you’ve not done this before at all,” Waterhouse says with a laugh. She’s got plenty of support in her corner: She’s backed by an all-female band and gearing up for her biggest tour yet.

The tour in question? A cross-country jaunt supporting Father John Misty, one that essentially marks the most Waterhouse has seen of America. Stops include some of the country’s biggest venues: Try Red Rocks amphitheatre and Radio City Music Hall on for size, among others.

Bigger crowds present even bigger opportunities for Waterhouse, who’s ready to lean fully into the art of live performance.

“You can see this thing outside yourself and view it as an observer, and not just within yourself,” she says of taking the stage and delivering intensely personal tracks off I Can’t Let Go”.

I’ll round off with proof that I Can’t Let Go is an album worth investigating. It received some really positive reviews from critics. This is what The Line of Best Fit had to say when they sat down with the album. They focus on the remarkable storytelling that means you are immersed and pulled into these rich and sumptuous vignettes:

“Suki Waterhouse’s debut album is a shimmering soft-pop opus that revels in its self-indulgence, and shines all the more for it. Led by her soulful delivery and musically arranged only ever as much as it needs to be, ethereal atmosphere-weaving is the star quality of I Can’t Let Go.

Every vignette Waterhouse shares is simultaneously stripped-back and sumptuously deep, stunningly put together to focus on the storytelling. Each track is a tale in the same mode as the likes of Lana Del Rey’s Hollywood visions – an easy, seemingly obvious comparison, given the poetry of Waterhouse’s lyrics and the familiar, immersive sprawl of her musicality. It’s there in “Melrose Meltdown”’s polaroid moment of Malibu dreams in a metaphorical getaway car, “Wild Side”’s almost-but-not-quite idealism of a relationship’s moments of turmoil, “Put Me Through It”’s wistful stratospheric beauty.

But hone in closer, looking for specific points to draw comparison between Waterhouse and her contemporaries, the red threads fray a little – this is diaristic and personal on every level, and though comparisons are inevitable, they find themselves feeling defunct in the fact of the humanity that saturates I Can’t Let Go. Because as personal and sometimes painful as it is, it’s also really playful. Waterhouse explores her internal world with a wry smile here and there (“Bullshit On The Internet” is as self-awarely self-indulgent as you can get, and excellently, dreamily so), and isn’t really bothered if people are following, or enraptured, or enchanted. As striking and silky as the lyricism is, Waterhouse isn’t seeking poetic accolades for it, she’s just weaving her words to vocalise a state of being, and then the music to set it to.

Each moment deftly distinguishes itself from what came before, on an album that when you’re not listening to it, shimmers into a continuous ride of smooth, hazy undulations. There’s just enough of a line between cohesion and repetition that leaves I Can’t Let Go feeling like a world of its own without losing precision. “Devil I Know” is a standout, an early moment of sultry punctuation in basslines and hooks; “Slip” closes the album off like a segue into a synthy sunshine-pop, Jack Antonoff-esque production. Waterhouse isn’t just playful with her themes, she’s playful with her communication too.

If I Can’t Let Go does anything, it proves that Waterhouse deserves a spot in the romantic, Tumblr it-girl canon she firmly occupies as a model and an actress, as a musician. Her lyrics are snippets of beauty, her voice is intoxicating, her songwriting is immaculate. But, begrudgingly, I Can’t Let Go proves that Waterhouse may have no inclination to take up her spot in that canon, because this album isn’t for us to dissect and project – it’s a personal soundtrack, a mixtape of years that straddles the gorgeous and the gloomy sides”.

Finally, I will get to NME. Big fans of her work, they provided I Can’t Let Go a four-star review when they spent some time with it. No doubt one of the best albums of 2022 – and not just one of the best debuts -, I feel we all need to familiarise ourselves with such a beautiful and personal debut album. One from an artist you need to watch closely:

“I’m tired of keeping all my feelings to myself,” Suki Waterhouse sings on the glacial glow of ‘Put Me Through It’, but on her debut album, she doesn’t hold anything back. The Sub Pop-backed ‘I Can’t Let Go’ presents us with an intimate portrait of the British musician and actor’s life, coloured with a rush of intense and powerful emotions. Far from bottling things up or shying away from these internal sensations, it’s a record that lets its creator – and, by extension, us – feel everything.

Waterhouse’s first full-length effort embraces the peaks and troughs of life, turning even its ugly, dark sides into beautiful songs to help carry you through your own turmoil. ‘Melrose Meltdown’ morphs from a gracefully eerie opening to a dazzling piece of dusky, cinematic indie and tells a Hollywood-worthy story of romantic drama. “Welcome to my Melrose Meltdown / Nobody ever breaks up, we just break down,” she sighs over a minimal backing. “We really fucked it up / In diamonds and drugstores.” The sun-kissed strum of ‘Bullshit On The Internet’, in part, deals with seeing an ex photographed with a new partner and, thanks to social media, is relatable even if your old lovers’ new relationships aren’t racking up column inches in gossip mags.

There’s a strength and resilience to ‘I Can’t Let Go’ that comes from owning every angle of emotion and its creator letting herself take charge in situations that might lead to pain. “I’ma put some goddamn moves on you babe, I know you need it / Die a double death for you, death for your secrets,” she asserts on ‘Moves’, while the slinky ‘Devil I Know’ sees her knowingly sink into circumstances that are probably best avoided. “Back in hell, at least I’m comfortable,” Waterhouse shrugs on its chorus. “Hand to heart, I’m gonna stay faithful / To the devil I know.”

Throughout the album, the star drops hints at her influences – a tinge of Lana Del Rey and Mazzy Star there, a splash of Fiona Apple and Lucinda Williams there. Largely, though, the record twists those inspirations into her own brittle sound that complements the undercurrent of fragility running through the songs.

Like that line in ‘Put Me Through It’ suggests, Waterhouse was nervous to share her personal songwriting with the world. On her debut album, though, she overcomes that fear in impressive form – it might have taken six years to get here from her debut single, but ‘I Can’t Let Go’ was well worth the wait”.

A truly wonderful album from Suki Waterhouse, I Can’t Let Go is most definitely worth revisiting. A new single from this year,  To Love, suggests something might be in the works already when it comes to album two. After a starring role in Daisy Jones & The Six, I wonder if that new exposure and musical experience (the series relates to a fictional band who have been compared with Fleetwood Mac) impacts the sounds of her second album. I think that a Waterhouse album with a touch of Rumours or Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac would be so interesting! Whenever that does arrive, it is…

GOING to be essential listening.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hammer Horror at Forty-Five: Inside Lionheart’s Unusual and Underrated Lead Single

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Hammer Horror at Forty-Five

Inside Lionheart’s Unusual and Underrated Lead Single

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THERE is a lot to discuss…

when it comes to the Kate Bush single, Hammer Horror. It turns forty-five on 27th October. Released as the lead single of her second album, Lionheart, it is a song about an actor who gets thrust into the lead role of The Hunchback of Notre Dame after the original actor dies in an accident on the film set. He is then guilt-ridden ends up being haunted by the ghost of the jealous original actor, who was a former friend. Thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia ahead of time, as I will be quoting a bit from them for this anniversary feature. Even though it was a single that only reached forty-four (her lowest chart position to that date; the next single, Wow, got her back into the top twenty), she performed it all around the world. Whilst in Australia during a promotional tour, Kate Bush devised the dance routine for the song in her Melbourne hotel room. She performed the song on the television show, Countdown. Coffee Homeground, one of the three new songs she wrote for Lionheart, was the B-side. Many I speak to feel Hammer Horror was a good first single to release. I have no doubt the song works as a single though, as you have options like Wow, Symphony in Blue and Kashka from Baghdad to choose from, Hammer Horror seems like a risky first release. The parent album, Lionheart, turns forty-five on November. That was a chart smash. Although not as adored as 1978’s The Kick Inside, there is a lot to love and recommend on Kate Bush’s sophomore album.

I am going to go on in a second. Before getting to that, Kate Bush provides the full story when it comes to the inspiration behind one of her most important and underrated singles. One would have thought her popularity and momentum would have got Hammer Horror inro the top forty at the very least. Maybe audiences felt that the song was too much of a departure or was a little inaccessible (though they got Wuthering Heights to number one!):

“The song is not about, as many think, Hammer Horror films. It is about an actor and his friend. His friend is playing the lead in a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a part he's been reading all his life, waiting for the chance to play it. He's finally got the big break he's always wanted, and he is the star. After many rehearsals he dies accidentally, and the friend is asked to take the role over, which, because his own career is at stake, he does. The dead man comes back to haunt him because he doesn't want him to have the part, believing he's taken away the only chance he ever wanted in life. And the actor is saying, "Leave me alone, because it wasn't my fault - I have to take this part, but I'm wondering if it's the right thing to do because the ghost is not going to leave me alone and is really freaking me out. Every time I look round a corner he's there, he never disappears."

The song was inspired by seeing James Cagney playing the part of Lon Chaney playing the hunchback - he was an actor in an actor in an actor, rather like Chinese boxes, and that's what I was trying to create. (Kate Bush Club Newsletter, November 1979)”.

I say that Hammer Horror is one of Kate Bush’s most important singles, as it was the bridge between The Kick Inside and Lionheart. That being said, she was still discussing that debut album in some form when promoting Lionheart. In fact, the final single from The Kick Inside, Strange Phenomena, was released in Brazil on 1st June, 1979! If not one of her most loved singles, I do really like the video for Hammer Horror. Directed by Keef (Keith McMillan), the single did fare better in countries like Australia and Ireland. I wonder whether people here were expecting something different or were a little overloaded with The Kick Inside. Did Hammer Horror come out too soon?! There is a big argument to suggest EMI should have halted release of an album until 1979. Trying to capitalise on the attention around their Bush, I think that rush to get a new single and album out was a mistake that could have cost her dearly. A big reason why Bush was keen to produce her third studio album (with Jon Kelly), Never for Ever, in 1980. This is some of the critical reception of Hammer Horror:

“On Radio 1's Round Table on October 27, 1978 the single was reviewed by DJ's John Peel ("I didn't like the album at all and I'm not too enthused with this either") and Paul Gambaccini ("It doesn't grab me immediately as The Man With The Child In His Eyes"). Record Mirror's Ronnie Gurr opined: "Kate keeps up the formula and doesn't upset the fans... sounds like Joni Mitchell popping tabs with the LSO." In NME, Tony Parsons wrote: "Ominous post ELO orchestration with the unrequited lust of a broken affair viewed as living dead love-bites-back as in classic 50's British celluloid, a real nail biter, hypnotic and disconcerting".

Like pretty much every Kate Bush songs, the lyrics are compelling and original. It is hard to pinpoint why Hammer Horror didn’t resonate when it came out. Maybe there was a sense of sameness. Perhaps the public didn’t expect the first single from Bush’s second album a mere five months after The Man with the Child in His Eyes came out! The contrast between those two songs is quite stark. I wanted to highlight the opening lyrics of Hammer Horror as being especially interesting and vivid: “You stood in the belltower/But now you're gone/So who knows all the sights/Of Notre Dame?/They've got the stars for the gallant hearts/I'm the replacement for your part/But all I want to do is forget/You, friend”. There are a couple of features about Hammer Horror I want to focus in on before I conclude. Into the Pop Void shared their take in 2015:

“This was absolutely not how things were supposed to go – only a few months earlier the rather divisive Wuthering Heights had sailed to no.1, and even at the age of five I was aware of how polarising it was. My school playground was divided into those who pranced around doing Kate impressions at playtime and those who thought we were nutters. I suppose the risk with Wuthering Heights was that it’s strangeness would mean it ended up as a novelty record, and as we all know, novelty success isn’t often repeated. But when The Man With the Child In His Eyes followed it into the top 10, it looked like that pitfall had been successfully avoided.

And then came Hammer Horror.

I’m not sure what anyone really expected of a brand new Kate Bush single at this point, but apparently it wasn’t this. Opening with a fabulously dramatic string and piano pairing, it’s definitely something of a curiosity. The creeping, tentative verse gives way to a jagged, almost violent rock chorus and the whole thing veers wildly between the two styles, with Kate alternating her upper and lower registers like she’s got two heads. It may be a bit Rock Follies at times, but it’s a gift to interpretive dancers.

You could argue that it was just too strange to be a hit, but the follow-up, Wow – a song about theatrical luvvies containing pop’s best – and probably only – reference to the other use for Vaseline, went to no.14. For Kate, oddity was never a barrier to success, so I think Hammer Horror – despite its helpful just-before-Halloween release date (27th of October), was just a bit unlucky.

A lot of people tend to think that Lionheart, coming just nine months after The Kick Inside, was a bit rushed and lacking the depth and intricacy of its predecessor. I disagree with that: it’s overflowing with ideas, beautifully arranged and the most overtly theatrical of all her albums, which makes perfect sense given that 1979’s Tour of Life was already in the planning stages. I was too young to attend (“mummy, please can I go and see the screaming lady?”), but every bit of that strange, glorious energy was still in place when I went to the Before the Dawn show in 2014. Wept for most of it, couldn’t speak about it coherently for weeks afterwards. Still not sure I can.

Entered chart: 11/11/1978

Chart peak: 44

Weeks on chart: 6

Who could sing this today and have a hit? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Lady Gaga belted this out on American Horror Story: Hotel”.

I am interested in a feature from Dreams of Orgonon from back in 2018. Christine Kelley made some interesting observations about Hammer Horror. A song I feel that people should revisit ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary on 27th October:

“There’s also an element of musical gender play at work in “Hammer Horror.” Bush chooses a male story with a masculine narrator and tells it through a feminine perspective with dashes of camp. This is where her “actor in an actor” fascination comes in. She’s telling someone’s story and embellishing it in radical ways. If Mick Jagger sang this track, it’d be him spitting autobiographically at Keith Richards, who would reply with some vicious chords in open D. Bush plays the actor as a frightened damsel, terrified of the stranger in the dark. She begins the song with a trembling “yooooouuu stoooood,” moving down her vocal range for a more playful “they’ve got the stars for the gallant hearts” (the most innocent confession of pissing oneself ever put on record), howl-belting out “HAMMER HOR-ROR” for the chorus, and lapsing into a more classically Bushian “are we really sure about this” in the post-chorus. It’s the most daring Bush vocal we’ve heard on this blog so far. No male artist would go this far in 1978.

What else do those vocals point to? I don’t know, umm, how about the fact that this is the most camp thing ever? Bush maintains some reverence for her Gothic source material, but not without a tongue-in-cheek performance. Her vocal for “Hammer Horror” is full-blown melodrama, containing, as Goth scholar Andi Harriman puts it, the Goth subculture’s commitment to dramaticism, or “transforming yourself into a different form of beauty.” Bush’s vocal range swerves up and down, covering C#6, Bb5, and descending to the lows of F#5 and F5. The song is absurdly eclectic and committed to its shtick, containing a licking guitar and a full-blown string section tensely opening the song and carrying the chorus. Musically, it’s full-blown hedonism. Visually, it’s another story altogether.

ART CREDIT: Lisa Kilanowski

I mean, look at that music video. Bush is dressed in black while dancing with a man (presumably dancer Stewart Avon-Arnold) and expressing nearly every note of the song with obsessive literalism. When she sings about a hand reaching out from the dark to grab her, sure enough she gurns at a mysterious hand. Indeed she gurns at everything in the music video — Bush will remain a world class gurner until she develops a more understated relationship with the camera (and thus many great GIFs were lost to the world). Until then, this is the standard for camp Bush videos. It is utterly absurd and completely delightful.

Now we’re discussing camp, we might as well discuss the real ghost haunting this essay: Goth rock. It’s uncontroversial to say that Kate Bush is not Goth. She’s too separate from the Goth subculture in terms of aesthetic, class, and musicality to claim to membership. However Bush is, as we noted earlier, not averse to engaging with the Gothic. She launched her career on it. Naturally there’s going to be some overlap with Goth rock.

One of the most surprising things about Bush is how she’ll often stumble on an aesthetic before anyone else and perform it in a way that sounds nothing like its more famous iterations. “Hammer Horror” was demoed in 1976 and released in 1978, when the Goth scene was beginning to cohere as a subculture. When it was released as a single in October, Joy Division had recently put out an EP, Siouxsie and the Banshees had cracked the Top Ten with “Hong Kong Garden,” The Cure had recorded but not yet released “Killing an Arab,” (yes much orientalism) and early iterations of Bauhaus were playing Northampton clubs. Goth wasn’t a salient cultural movement, but it was beginning to look like a separate scene from punk and even standard forms of post-punk (e.g. Gang of Four, Magazine). While this was going on, Bush had charted multiple times with three singles and two albums. She existed in a different sphere from Siouxsie and Peter Murphy. So why comment on the similarities at all?”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

It is weird and kind of cool that the two U.K. singles from Lionheart relate to the stage and performance. Film and theatre technically! Maybe Bush was feeling paranoid or like an actor in a game. Even if these are songs written before her debut came out, there is this subconscious indication that there was perhaps some dissatisfaction creeping in. I always thought that the album could have benefited from a third single. Symphony in Blue was released in Japan. Kashka from Baghdad wasn’t released at all. Crucially, all three of the new songs written for Lionheart – Symphony in Blue, Full House and Coffee Homeground – were used as A or B-sides. Important to ensure they got into the world. If the stage was at the centre of Wow, that is where Bush found herself the following year for her only tour, The Tour of Life. She would be able to bring to life Lionheart songs that were denied the chance to become singles. Hammer Horror, naturally, was part of the set. With wit, ghoulishness, paranoia, regret and some lovely wordplay (“I've got a hunch that you're following/To get your own back on me”) in the blend, I would like to see Hammer Horror get some love in the lead-up to its forty-fifth anniversary. Even if I consider it not to be a natural first single from a crucial second studio album, Kate Bush obviously felt something and had an intuition that it would be popular. Maybe EMI were more a driving force regarding the choice of the first single. I might have to scour the interview archives and see if Bush was asked about it. In any case, the genre blend of Glam Rock, Art Rock, and Baroque Pop expanded her musical palette from The Kick Inside and showed she was not an artist who could be easily labelled and predicted – something that would become more apparent with each subsequent album. The final track from the massively underappreciated Lionheart, I think that Hammer Horror needs…

SOME fresh love.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Jane Weaver - The Silver Globe

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Jane Weaver - The Silver Globe

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A terrific album…

that I would encourage people to buy and give a spin to, I think that Jane Weaver’s The Silver Globe is an underrated modern classic. Produced and written by Weaver, it was released on 20th October, 2014. The Liverpool-born artist is one of our most inventive and consistent. Her eleventh studio album, 2021’s Flock, proves that! Another acclaimed and hugely successful release. The Silver Globe would have been eligible for the Mercury Prize 2015, though it was not shortlisted. Without doubt one of 2014’s best, this seems like a real oversight! Receiving huge critical love, you don’t often hear songs from The Silver Globe played right across radio. I heard Mission Desire a week or so ago on BBC Radio 6 Music but, apart from that, it is quite rare. This is an album that shows why Jane Weaver is such a revered and respected songwriter and producer. I will come to some reviews for the album soon. There is a 2017 interview – when she was promoting Modern Kosmology - I will get to, where Weaver talks about the success of The Silver Globe. The Quietus did an in-depth interview with Weaver in 2014 in promotion of The Silver Globe. I have taken quite a lot from it, as I think it gives depth and background to this amazing album:

“In 1988, On The Silver Globe, a film by Polish director Andrzej Żuławski, was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie was based on a book written by Żuławski's granduncle, Jerzy, and told the story of a group of astronauts who leave Earth to start a new civilisation. Żuławski – who is perhaps best known for his 1981 horror flick Possession - began writing the screenplay for On The Silver Globe in 1975, but the Polish government at the time interpreted the tale as a thinly-veiled parable about the struggles against totalitarianism and shut down the project. The film – and a hastily cobbled together version at that – was only subsequently released after the communist regime had been overthrown.

The movie is also the source of inspiration for the title of Manchester-based musician Jane Weaver's sixth solo album, The Silver Globe. And like Żuławski's film, The Silver Globe has not had the easiest, or quickest, of gestations. However, Weaver may well have produced her masterpiece; The Silver Globe is a magnificent record fusing spaced-out prog rock, samba-specked electronica, Buck Rogers-style disco, Motorik beats, Aussie-style Krautrock, vintage synths and Weaver's celestial voice.

And while The Silver Globe is a concept album, the narrative always ensures that Weaver's elegant songwriting is central to the record's allure. Written and recorded sporadically over the intervening years since 2010's Fallen By Watchbird album, The Silver Globe also contains the accumulation of some seriously talented guest appearances – David Holmes produces two tracks, Damon Gough provides a noodly guitar solo on 'Don't Take My Soul', Aussie space-rockers Cybotron add sax to the epic 'Argent', while Suzanne Ciani's Buchla waves grace the opening title track.

Jane Weaver has been an ever-present figure on the Manchester music scene for over 20 years. Her first band, Kill Laura, released three singles on Rob Gretton's Manchester record label and her solo career was initially backed by early incarnations of Doves and Elbow. Married to producer and Finder Keepers label-owner Andy Votel, Weaver also runs Bird Records, a boutique imprint that has championed the likes of Cate Le Bon, Maxine Peake and Beth Jeans Houghton.

We meet at a cosy pub in Marple Bridge, a sleepy village tucked under the edge of the Peak District. And if The Silver Globe is complex, visionary and bursting with invention, its creator is the epitome of Northern pragmatism and dry humour. Jane talks about her frustrations with the music industry and how, rather than let her dissatisfaction contain her creativity, The Silver Globe became a the conduit for a freedom of artistic expression and the defining album of her stellar, if vastly underrated, career.

 I am imagining that The Silver Globe was an epic undertaking. When did you first begin to think about making the album and what was the initial inspiration?

Jane Weaver: I started writing the album about three-and-a-half years ago. I had just done a mini-soundtrack album at Eve Studios [in Manchester], which is a really amazing place. I did a sort of experimental, atmospheric, Morricone-inspired record in three days. I knew I loved the studio and that I wanted to do more experimental stuff. Due to certain restrictions – things going on in my life and financial constraints – I knew that when I started writing the new album, it wasn't going to be a three or four day recording stint, or the kind of thing I could do at home or even in a small studio. The things I was hearing made me realise the album would be an epic job. I quickly realised these songs were getting very complicated. That's why it has taken me so long to do because I wanted to work with different people and try different studios – and that's why it has taken three-and-a-half years.

The album title is taken from the film On The Silver Globe by Andrzej Żuławski. What was it about that piece of cinema that resonated with you so much?

JW: I don't know at what point I saw the film, On The Silver Globe, but I felt an immediate connection with it. On The Silver Globe is about a bunch of astronauts that go to another planet and start a new civilisation and it all got me thinking about a revolution and a post-apocalyptic theme. I was frustrated with what I was doing at the time and I was struggling. I felt I hated the music industry and the way it works. When I first started making music there was a certain process that was followed in general, but now there is this big free-for-all thing, which is amazing and I am not down on it at all, but it made me think about where everything will end up and questioning why I was making music as an artist. It was a 'What is the point?' moment: "Why am I spending all my money on this art project when I shouldn't really be as I have a family?"

So had did that trigger you to make your most ambitious album yet?

JW: I think I had just got to the point where I realised that you just have to see yourself as a painter, who is just painting and painting, and some of it is good and some of it is bad, and to just keep going. You have to do it for you and forget about the world outside. Also, since the last album, I had been getting bored with the singer-songwriter thing and the limitations in what was expected of me. I am in a brilliant position; I have a label and work in conjunction with Finders Keepers, and can basically do what I want, so why was I limiting myself? I'd almost brainwashed myself. That was part of the reason I tried to push myself further into doing more experimental stuff.

 You have worked with a number of collaborators on The Silver Globe. Were you writing song parts with specific people in mind?

JW: No. A lot of it was accidental. For example, I have known David [Holmes] for years, and I was going to LA anyway and it just so happened that David was living there. He asked me to visit him in this "amazing" studio he was working at. I haven't worked with a producer for years – I do a lot of it myself. I trusted David, gave him the demos and asked him to do what he wanted. I let him takeover – which I'd not really done before.

How did that feel?

JW: It's pretty weird; sometimes he would say "that's pretty bad" or "that doesn't really work" and I would be like [forces smile] "Okay David." But, it worked out for the best as I got great tracks out of it ['Arrows' and 'Stealing Gold'].

How often do you work on songs with Andy [Votel]?

JW: Now and then. We don't tend to sit down and write together - would probably argue as we would both think we are right. I respect and appreciate where Andy's strengths are. He is amazing at arranging and remixing and adding little flourishes to things – production-wise - that I wouldn't necessarily think of. When he heard 'Don't Take My Soul' he wanted to do something with the track and he got Damon [Gough], who I have always wanted to work with, to do a little guitar part. I let them get on with it – just gave them the song and left them alone in the studio.

The Silver Globe is very atmospheric and, to my ears, has a very cohesive aesthetic. What was your thought process in developing the feel of the album?

JW: At the time I was listening to a lot of Yoko Ono's Fly and Approximately Infinite Universe and I had this idea of getting a really kosmiche-sounding backing recording. I now have a band, so when I was hearing these songs I knew that a lot of them were one loop but with repeated for about ten minutes. I thought it would be amazing to go into the studio and record all the backing live. Other aspects were more spontaneous - I had Suzanne Ciani do some Buchla waves [on 'Cells'] and Andy also managed to contact Steve Maxwell from Cybotron to do a sax solo [on 'Argent']. Steve was in Australia and the whole thing was pretty crazy as I wanted a kind of connection with the club scene from the Mad Max movie.

Is a lot of your music inspired by films?

JW: It can be. I think with films, a lot of the stuff I watch is to do with Finders Keepers' soundtracks. It is through Andy's projects, where I will be sitting down to try and do my work and there will be a dreadful vampire film on in the background, which he is doing the soundtrack for. I'm forced to watch lots of lesbian vampire films at nine in the morning! I have to tell him to shut the curtains so the neighbours can't see in! I will say that a lot of film stuff that I like has come from that route and has just caught my eye. So, yeah, all the horrific soundtrack stuff is on the album.

Ultimately, The Silver Globe seems to end on a very upbeat note. My two favourite tracks are the closing 'If Only We Could Be In Love' and 'Your Time In This Life Is Just Temporary' that both feel very positive.

JW: They are positive. There a few doom moments on the record but there is a resolution, because there is a sense of that we are all only in this world for a few years and many tragic things happen – and have happened to me in my life where people have died – and it makes me think "What am I worried about?" in a kind of Zen moment. We have to crack on with it and stop moaning.

You have talked about The Silver Globe being your most ambitious album. Once an artist has unshackled themselves is there a danger of endless opportunities and being unable to focus on an end result?

JW: Absolutely - at various points I thought I was having a massive meltdown. It can be very hard to reign in. I was continually adding to the tracking of a song, but I would then have to go through all the keyboard tracks I'd done and pick the ones I wanted to keep. It can become a bit of a nightmare. But, all of this just takes time and I did want it to be right and I did want it to sound good”.

I will get to the 2017 interview, where Jane Weaver was talking about Modern Kosmology, and The Silver Globe’s success. The more I listen to The Silver Globe, the more that I get from it. Such a brilliant album with so many interesting sounds and songs, everyone needs to listen to it when they can:

“Two decades, several bands and six solo albums in is not normally the point at which an artist qualifies as an ‘overnight success’. Yet Jane Weaver managed this unusual achievement in 2014 following the release of her magnificent record The Silver Globe. Her previous solo work had explored psychedelic and electronic components in conjunction with stark folk, but the vivid technicolour of The Silver Globe brought her unique magpie vision to life in a striking and new way – and gained her a whole new following in the process.

With this year’s follow-up Modern Kosmology proving a bigger critical and commercial success, I managed to catch up with Jane Weaver ahead of a UK tour that brings her to The Cluny on Thursday 2nd November as part of the venue’s fifteenth anniversary celebrations.

Discussing the increased attention on her work following The Silver Globe, I asked Weaver if her rising status had taken her by surprise. “Yes, definitely! After The Silver Globe, I started getting more gig offers, and I was pretty overwhelmed by the warmth and support I suddenly got. To me it was so nice to know I was engaging with people, and most people are nice.”

Perhaps informed by this, Modern Kosmology arrived earlier this year, presenting a more direct, focused and confident state of intent. Considering the album’s genesis, Weaver notes, “I wanted to make some of the instrumentation clearer and more linear; I made the decision to not swamp everything in space echo (which I love). I suppose it made me feel more exposed, especially when it came to my voice: I like to experiment with different synths and textures, percussion and drum machines, so that [Modern Kosmology] sounded a bit crankier than the last record”.

The reviews for The Silver Globe were universally positive. As I said, it is a tragedy it was not put up for the Mercury Prize. Even if there was this acclaim, I find it rare that songs from the album are played today. The Arts Desk shared their opinions about a 2014 work of brilliance from the constantly inspired and consistent Jane Weaver:

“2014 has seen a fair few late lunges for the line in the race to be my best album of the year (a contest fought more for prestige and honour than hard cash in all honesty). I’m a mild-mannered sort, and hate disappointing the recording artists clearly hanging on my every word for validation, but Theo Parrish, Spectres and Craig Bratley will have to settle for commendations along with Goat, The War on Drugs, Peaking Lights and Klaus Johann Grobe this time.

Jane Weaver’s The Silver Globe has taken gold – and done so with clear distance between it and the rest of the pack.

Where the concept behind Weaver’s last album, 2010’s The Fallen By Watch Bird, spawned a book, the overwhelming sense with The Silver Globe is of something no less narrative-driven, but more visual, and not just because of the head nods to Polish film director Andrzej Żuławski (On the Silver Globe, Possession) and Chilean counterpart Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain). The sheer range of colours and textures in this narrative of personal discovery and artistic freedom are redolent of a beautiful, hand-stitched quilt of individual story songs sewn together to create a stunningly beautiful and audaciously ambitious allegory.

The urgent immediacy of (almost) opener "Argent" and its near neighbour "The Electric Mountain" have clear musical touchstones in Soundcarriers and Broadcast, but that’s only the background to the story being spun here. In "Cells" and "Stealing Gold", we are led by the hand into a beautiful, bucolic landscape where we find maypole melodies that leave us spinning with their intuitive inventiveness. That Weaver has been bold enough to split these with a song as knowingly route one as the irresistable "Mission Desire" without compromising the heft or weave of the whole, is testament to her wholeness of vision as much as her songwriting prowess.

If you like the sound of it, don’t stream it, buy it. Own the thing – have the artefact. It’s a work of art and one that will repay you in spades”.

I am going to finish off with a review from AllMusic. The Silver Globe is an album that has so much richness to it, I am not surprised many of the reviews were long and detailed. Nine years after its release, this fabulous work has lost none of its brilliance:

“Liverpool-born, Manchester-based indie folk artist Jane Weaver made an early recorded appearance as a solo artist on a 1998 split single alongside a pre-fame Doves and a pre-Finders Keepers Andy Votel. The two became a couple, and while Doves' star went on to shine the brightest commercially, Weaver's made a steady ascent. She released her debut full-length, Seven Day Smile, in 2006 on Bird Records, a Finders Keepers imprint co-run by the couple. While that record and its follow-up, Cherlokalate, represented tentative steps into psych folk, 2010's acclaimed Fallen by Watchbird furthered her interest in the mystical and the magical. Named in reference to Andrzej Żuławski's 1988 film On the Silver Globe, this offering finds Weaver playing to her strengths. On "Argent" she blends a hypnotic and repetitive Krautrock-inspired groove with otherworldly, pulsing synths -- displaying her obsession with the early electronic pioneer Suzanne Ciani and an affinity with the Ghost Box stable -- and provides multi-tracked vocals which nod to Laetitia Sadier's work with Stereolab. Elsewhere, the cavernous, rich vocal effects on "Arrows" alone are enough to get lost in, but add to the mix a steady, metronomic rhythm and a Twin Peaks-esque two-note bass motif and it has a timeless feel, even on repeated listens. The vinyl version of The Silver Globe hides "Arrows" away as the penultimate track; thankfully, however, the other formats place this highlight in an earlier position, directly after the Hawkwind-sampling "The Electric Mountain."

There's other material here that could feel overly twee in the hands of her contemporaries -- hear the cartoon disco of "Don't Take My Soul," for example -- but it's Weaver's assured tone which ensures that this isn't the case. Her main achievement here is the fact that she effortlessly distills aspects of both the early electronic/library music/hauntology craze, and her psych folk grounding, into one highly accessible album. This is no mean feat -- while these genres can prove to be notoriously esoteric and abstract, there are inventive moments here which wouldn't sound out of place on mainstream alternative radio. "If Only We Could Be in Love" will undoubtedly interest fans of Goldfrapp, and "Mission Desire" is the album's true earworm, but the gentle folk of "Stealing Gold" is filled with enough of Weaver's idiosyncrasies to entice anybody into her world. For listeners new to her music, The Silver Globe is as good a starting point as any, not only to her own rich canon, but also to the weird and wonderful niche genres that have inspired her”.

The fact that The Silver Globe was accessible and yet quite layered and complex at times meant that it received a wide audience - and it put Jane Weaver on the radar of those who may have missed her earlier work. The fact this was her sixth studio album and she seemed to hit a new peak proves what an amazing artist she is. Few have the consistency that she does. I am not sure whether there is a follow-up to 2021’s Flock. There was last year’s The Metallic Index (2022) by Fenella, with Peter Philipson & Raz Ullah – so we may have to wait a little longer. Perhaps less widely played or discussed as it was back in 2014, The Silver Globe is an accomplished and phenomenal album…

WORTH another listen.

FEATURE: Dr. Feelgood: The Physical and Psychological Nourishment and Benefits of Music

FEATURE:

 

 

Dr. Feelgood

PHOTO CREDIT: Keira Burton/Pexels

The Physical and Psychological Nourishment and Benefits of Music

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GIVEN what is going on…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Kelly/Pexels

in the world around us, it seems like every day is one where we have to absorb more bad news! Whether it is something coming from the news, or the weather being massively unpredictable, there is this constant stream of fear and struggle. That all sounds bleak, though I feel – as many do – music has incredible benefits in that regard. I will come to a new article that has piqued my interest. Before that, Harvard Health Publishing put out an article last year that highlighted the benefits music has on mental wellbeing and anxiety reduction:

“How can music impact our quality of life?

Recently, researchers looked at the impact of music interventions on health-related quality of life, and tried to answer the question about the best way to help make that shift toward release, relaxation, and rehabilitation. This recent systematic review and meta-analysis (a study of studies) showed that the use of music interventions (listening to music, singing, and music therapy) can create significant improvements in mental health, and smaller improvements in physical health–related quality of life. While the researchers found a positive impact on the psychological quality of

Science has proven that chronic, low-grade inflammation can turn into a silent killer that contributes to cardiovas­cular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and other conditions. Get simple tips to fight inflammation and stay healthy -- from Harvard Medical School experts.

Complexities of music

As complex human beings from a wide variety of cultures, with a variety of life experiences and mental and physical health needs, our connection with music is very personal. Our relationship with music can be a very beautiful, vulnerable, and often complicated dance that shifts from moment to moment based on our mood, preferences, social situation, and previous experiences. There are times where music can have a clear and immediate impact on our well-being:

There are other times when a board-certified music therapist can help you build that connection to music, and find the best intervention and "dose" that could positively impact your health and provide a form of healing.

How can music be used as a therapeutic tool?

Music therapy is an established health care profession that uses evidence-based music interventions to address therapeutic health care goals. Music therapy happens between a patient (and possibly their caregivers and/or family) and a board-certified music therapist who has completed an accredited undergraduate or graduate music therapy program.

Music therapists use both active (singing, instrument exploration, songwriting, movement, digital music creation, and more) and receptive (music listening, guided imagery with music, playlist creation, or music conversation and reminiscence) interventions, and create goals to improve health and well-being.

Some of those goals could include decreasing anxiety, shifting your mood, decreasing pain perception during cancer or other medical treatment, increasing expression, finding motivation, and many others. The approach to using music to achieve these kinds of goals — and to improving your quality of life in general — can shift from moment to moment, and a music therapist can help you find what works best for a particular situation”.

A lot of the benefit from music comes with selecting the right type. If you are sad, choosing music that is quite downbeat or slower could be more use than happy music. You can accept your feelings - and there is that companionship with the sound and tone. Of course, more uplifting songs can elevate mood and help you break out of a funk. Naturally, as a disclaimer that needs to be put in right away: music as therapy and medicine is no substitute for therapy and medication: merely an alternative and additional form of assistance. To be fair, music aides those with memory issues and conditions like dementia. Music can help people unlock memories and parts of their brain that you would imagine to be ravaged and inaccessible. I am fascinated to see whether, in years to come, music as a companion to talk therapy and medication, is used to treat those suffering from a range of psychological disorders. We know about the mental health benefits. That is crucial at a very stressful and strange time. So many people cannot get a referral for a GP or counselling because of long waiting lists. It is really tough for those in need to get all the help they require. Of course, once more, music is not the answer and way around that. Merely, it has this therapeutic and healing power that can provide, at least, some form of temporary balm and clarity. In some cases, listening to music can help people to make important decisions, eradicate severe stress, and also ease their depression. Your brain can be kept young with music. There is almost that miraculous impact music can have on elderly people living with degenerative illnesses. It is amazing and humbling that a simple tune can make such a difference on a human being!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels

I am not sure whether we ever really think too about music’s physical benefits. Physical illness can be accompanied by physical issues. As someone with depression, anxiety and sleep issues, I often get aching muscles, headache, back pain and a sluggishness that is not really alienated or made better by medication. I have been thinking about this after an article in The Guardian asked that question: could we use music like medicine?. Prior to that, this Healthline article from 2020 explored and explained the way music can impact physical health:

“Music’s effects on the body

It can help your heart health

Music can make you want to move — and the benefits of dancing are well documented. Scientists also know that listening to music can alterTrusted Source your breath rate, your heart rate, and your blood pressure, depending on the music’s intensity and tempo.

It decreases fatigue

Anyone who has ever rolled down car windows and turned up the radio knows that music can be energizing. There’s solid science behind that lived experience.

In 2015, researchersTrusted Source at Shanghai University found that relaxing music helped reduce fatigue and maintain muscle endurance when people were engaged in a repetitive task.

Music therapy sessions also lessened fatigue in people receiving cancer treatments and raised the fatigue threshold for people engaged in demanding neuromuscular training, which leads us to the next big benefit.

It boosts exercise performance

Exercise enthusiasts have long known that music enhances their physical performance.

A 2020 research review confirms that working out with music improves your mood, helps your body exercise more efficiently, and cuts down on your awareness of exertion. Working out with music also leads to longer workoutsTrusted Source.

In clinical settings, athletes who listened to high-intensity, fast music during warmups were motivatedTrusted Source to perform better competitively.

You don’t have to be a world-class competitor to benefit: ResearchTrusted Source shows that syncing your workout to music can allow you to reach peak performance using less oxygen than if you did the same workout without the beat. Music acts as a metronome in your body, researchers said”.

That is all amazing to read. Hospital waiting times are rising, and GPs are struggling and not being supported by the Government. The figures make for alarming reading. More does need to be done, as the NHS is being betrayed (I would recommend this book by Dr. Julia Grace Patterson, that explains more the ways in which the NHS is being ignored; how vital the service is too). Whilst funding and commitment from the Government needs to happen to ensure that the NHS can avoid privatisation and huge problems, there is this amazing outlet – maybe ‘alternative medicine’ – that you get from music. Recently, David Robson asked (perhaps rhetorically) whether music can benefit physical health. It seems like the more research comes out, the more we can understand all the fascinating and hugely inspiring ways music can impact people dealing with a whole range of illnesses and complexities:

“The academic literature tends to distinguish “music medicine” from “music therapy”. The latter requires the participation of a trained expert and may involve playing an instrument, composing or improvising. Music medicine is far easier to roll out: it involves listening to recorded music and can be done by yourself.

As you might expect, the creative expression of music therapy produces the most consistent benefits, but multiple studies confirm that the mere act of listening can be an effective treatment for symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia and physical pain. Two trials have even found that a regular prescription of music can reduce the blood pressure of people with hypertension by 6mmHg. That’s enough to lower the risk of a stroke by 13%.

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

Music medicine may work its magic through a range of mechanisms. While it might seem obvious that happier tunes can get you out of a rut of negative thinking, many people who feel sad also benefit from listening to something melancholic. It’s possible that these pieces help us to accept our feelings without fighting them, which is often important for recovery. Depending on the track, we might feel a sense of connection with the artist’s expression of the emotions we are encountering, which could lead us to recognise the shared humanity in our suffering – a prerequisite for self-compassion – and allow us to find meaning in what we are experiencing.

At a physiological level, low-tempo tracks could help to entrain the electrical activity in the brain stem to slower rhythms, which can bring about a more tranquil mood and regulate other biological processes – such as heart rate and respiration. Repeating musical motifs, producing a buildup and release of tension, are also known to play with the brain’s prediction and reward circuitry. This can trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and endogenous opioids, which ease both emotional and physical pain. At its most extreme, we may feel these neurochemical changes as musical frisson or “chills” – an intense aesthetic experience”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Cole Keister/Pexels

From increased sexual arousal and better sex, to the way music can provide physical therapy and rehabilitation, I think we will see a day soon where music, alongside conventional therapy and medication, is prescribed by doctors. The fact that music can be as beneficial for the body as the mind is really important! Often medications and therapies deal with one or the other. Music’s lack of limitations is truly wondrous! The more research that comes out, the more it can be harnessed and used in a targeted way. Whether that is providing moments of clarity and consign for those with Parkinson’s, to people suffering physical maladies, it is an area that warrants greater exploration and focus. 20th September was National Playlist Day. Music for Dementia provided a useful guide as to how to compile a playlist across various streaming platforms:

“Make a playlist

A playlist is a list of songs that you can store and play online using a service such as Spotify or YouTube. You can create different playlists for different occasions. For example, you might want to have a ‘Good morning’ playlist of cheerful songs to help your family member get up in the morning. You could also have playlists for getting washed, getting dressed, going out or relaxing towards the end of the day.

Have a look at our easy guides on how to make online playlists of favourite songs using these online streaming services:    

How to make a playlist on Spotify

How to make a playlist on YouTube

How to make a playlist on Apple Music

How to make a playlist on Google Play

How to make a playlist on Amazon Music

The Playlist for Life site also has some easy guides on how to create a playlist for someone living with dementia”.

It is really exciting seeing new research come out. It seems lately there have been quite a few findings. I feel a lot more of us are feeling the psychological and physical impact that the changing of the seasons and the tide of bad news is having. Degenerative illnesses are so upsetting for families and sufferers, so any breakthrough regarding music and its role in keeping memories alive is brilliant! The physical benefits - on the heart, head and whole body - is really inspiring and encouraging. The fact that Music as a subject is not going to be on school curriculums soon enough is extra heartbreaking when you understand how beneficial it can be for children. It is also a fantastic social lubricant and tool that was invaluable when i was a child in the 1990s. I will keep saying that one cannot see music as this magic elixir and cure for all know ills. It is, at the very best, a useful aide to medicine and physical/talk therapy…though it is a fascinating and constantly-evolving ally and curiously wide-ranging tool. I think all of us right now can appreciate the benefits music holds. You may need to chose the song carefully depending on your mood or need. Set some time aside, let the music play…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Freepix

AND reap its benefits!

FEATURE: Remastering… Hachette Job: Changing the Narrative Regarding Race, Gender and Value in Music

FEATURE:

Remastering…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has said female and Black artists aren’t “intellectual enough” to be interviewed for his new book, The Masters - his outdated and controversial comments caused backlash online and across music media/PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Scruggs for The New York Times

Hachette Job: Changing the Narrative Regarding Race, Gender and Value in Music

_________

THIS may be a generational thing…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé has inspired artists across multiple genres and is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential artists of any generation/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TIDAL

but I still think there is a corner of the music industry who feels that superior and the most influential artists are white men. There is not as much credit and spotlight focused on Black artists and Black women especially. Look at festivals headliners and those given the most focus on music magazine covers. There is still this narrative that has existed for decades. It is one that we need to address and change. Maybe, in decades past, most of the more acclaimed music was being created by men. At a time when women are dominating music and so many include Black women are in a league of their own, any comment or perspective against that is jarring and flawed. I mention this, as Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has stirred controversy regarding his new book, The Masters. It contains no women. No Black women. No Black men. The idea and impression, therefore, is that the most important artists - ‘the masters’ - and the best innovators are all white men. I can agree people like Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan instantly spring to mind. What about Joni Mitchell? Beyoncé seems obvious. Madonna. Kate Bush. Kendrick Lamar or JAY-Z. When it comes to women and women of colour, there are options out there. As there is still an issue in the music industry regarding race and gender inequality, it seems like an awful statement bringing out a book which highlights the extraordinary legacy of white male artists. NME explains the (understandable) furore and backlash Wenner has faced:

“Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, has said female and black artists aren’t “intellectual enough” to be interviewed for his new book, The Masters.

Within the book, Wenner asks questions of seven “philosophers of rock”, notably all white men – Bono, Bob Dylan, the late Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, the late John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Pete Townshend.

In the introduction of the book, Wenner writes that women and artists of colour were not in his zeitgeist. He faced questions about this in an interview with David Marchese of The New York Times, and argued it wasn’t a “deliberate selection”.

“It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” he said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bruce Glikas/Getty Images

Marchese countered this by asking, “You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?”

Wenner responded: “It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.

“Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”

Marchese then questioned how Wenner could know that if he didn’t give those artists the chance to speak.

“Because I read interviews with them. I listen to their music. I mean, look at what Pete Townshend was writing about, or Jagger, or any of them. They were deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan and Wenner in 1995/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn/Contour by Getty Images

Even though this is one man and one book, I think The Masters is systematic of an attitude that prevails. Also, it has a rather unfortunate title and connotation when you consider history and how the word ‘master’ has been employed – even though it is referencing masterful male artists. It has a gender-neutral possibility that means women could have been included. Yesterday, I am published a feature tomorrow that included songs from Black female artists. Incredible tracks from this year. I will expand on this in future and feature truly iconic Black artists. I want to divert slightly and bring part of an interview from The New York Times, where Jann Wenner was promoting The Masters. I have picked it up at the point where the lack of Black women (or women at all) was raised and challenged:

“You developed personal friendships with a lot of the people you interviewed in “The Masters.” I’m curious how you think those friendships helped the interviews, and are there any ways in which they hindered them?

By and large, they helped. Because the interviews I did, they’re not confrontational interviews. They’re not interviews with politicians or business executives. These are interviews with artists. They’re meant to be sympathetic, and they’re meant to elicit from the artist as deep as possible thinking that they’re willing to reveal. I think that the friendships were critical. I mean, the example of Mick Jagger — he just didn’t give interviews to anybody, and he still doesn’t. It’s because we were friends, I got him to do it. I had a particular kind of relationship with Bob Dylan. Jerry Garcia, we were old buddies from years ago. So, it really works. The only place it hurt was with Bruce. That was the interview I did for the book, not for the magazine. And my friendship with Bruce is very deep at this point. It makes it difficult to ask questions that you know the answers to. You’re trimming your sails to the friendship.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Scruggs for The New York Times

History will speak. This is also a history-will-speak kind of question. There are seven subjects in the new book; seven white guys. In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going — not in your zeitgeist? What do you think is the deeper explanation for why you interviewed the subjects you interviewed and not other subjects?

Well, let me just. …

Carole King, Madonna. There are a million examples.

When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate. The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.

Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?

Hold on a second.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hachette (Wenner said the subjects of his new book were the “philosophers of rock”)

I’ll let you rephrase that.

All right, thank you. It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.

Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.

How do you know if you didn’t give them a chance?

Because I read interviews with them. I listen to their music. I mean, look at what Pete Townshend was writing about, or Jagger, or any of them. They were deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.

Don’t you think it’s actually more to do with your own interests as a fan and a listener than anything particular to the artists? I think the problem is when you start saying things like “they” or “these artists can’t.” Really, it’s a reflection of what you’re interested in more than any ability or inability on the part of these artists, isn’t it?

That was my No. 1 thing. The selection was intuitive. It was what I was interested in. You know, just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism. Which, I get it. I had a chance to do that. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever. I wish in retrospect I could have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe he’d have been the guy. Maybe Otis Redding, had he lived, would have been the guy”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Labelle

There is more to Venner’s book and outdated attitudes than it being a bit controversial. You have to wonder what could have been had Black women decades ago had been given more opportunities ands exposure. What about the pioneering and influential Black men in music that he omitted? From Smokey Robinson springs to mind. Stevie Wonder is one of the most influential artists who has ever lived! Magazines like Rolling Stone were dominated by men in their ranks and on their covers. Think what would happen now is the music press still considered white men more relevant and only worthy of highlighting. To be fair, the industry still is racist and sexist, yet exposing troubling and problematic views that white men are superior regarding artistic endeavour has historical connotations outside of music. We get into seriously problematic political and social territory. The truth is that the music industry is so vibrant and inspiring right now largely because of women and women of colour. We do live at a time when there is stubborn progress regarding recognising that and rewarding it with equality and overdue acknowledgement. The Guardian published a feature that said Jan Wenner’s views are perhaps not quite as unusual as they seem – as in the music industry is still sexist and racist. In no way defending him, Craig Seymour writes that Wenner is exposing music’s bias when it comes to race, gender and artistic value:

“In 2020, I was a guest on the Who Cares About the Rock Hall? podcast, discussing why one of my  favourite bands, Labelle, should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were certainly deserving: they sang socially conscious songs from a Black woman’s perspective, espoused a philosophy that reflected the intersectional politics of Black feminists such as the Combahee River Collective, and sported a space-age look now celebrated as an expression of Black futurism.

The problem was that I didn’t know how to articulate Labelle’s significance in terms that made sense for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Labelle only had one big hit, Lady Marmalade, an ode to a Creole sex worker; the group’s most direct influence has been multiple covers of Lady Marmalade that have almost no connection with the group’s radical politics and style. I just didn’t see how I would be able to translate the group’s importance to the type of people who vote for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, meaning the mostly white men who historically have voted to induct artists who are white men, partly because of the way they’ve influenced other white men.

IN THIS PHOTO: Wenner in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann Archive

I thought about this podcast moment again when I read the comments of Rolling Stone magazine founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame co-founder Jann Wenner, in the New York Times. In his forthcoming book The Masters, Wenner compiles his interviews with seven rock musicians, all white men, “philosophers of rock,” as Wenner calls them. But Black musicians, he said, “just didn’t articulate at that level” and Joni Mitchell also “didn’t, in my mind, meet that test”. The likes of Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend expressed, he said, “deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock’n’roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.”

He later apologised, saying “I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words”, ones that “don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists”. But his earlier comments linger, confirming as they do the unspoken biases I have experienced in the world of music criticism since entering the field as a Black gay man in the 90s.

It does seem archaic publishing anything – whether a book, article or documentary – that discusses white men as being the most important artists. The true innovators. Excluding women comes at a moment where even thew Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – who have been called out for the lack of women nominated and inducted – still is dominated by male artists. You only need look at festivals headliners and the gender breakdown across radio playlists to see that male artist Are a go-to. Women being excluded and cast to the side. Things are starting to improve in some areas, though there needs to be a concerted and dedicated promise from the industry to improve visibility and bring about parity. It is always egregious and

“What’s needed at this moment isn’t just Wenner’s excoriation and ousting from the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though that has happened. We need a complete rethinking of the criteria by which artists are deemed important, influential, and relevant, especially since many of the critics and editors who were trained by or influenced by Wenner are still working in journalism and book publishing.

IN THIS PHOTO: Wenner inaugurating the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame/PHOTO CREDIT: Rex Features

In 2004, critic Kelefa Sanneh attempted to address this issue in The Rap Against Rockism. He wrote: “Rockism means idolising the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionising punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncer.” Sanneh’s critique helped birth what some call “poptimism”, which, as critic Chris Richards describes it, “contends that all pop music deserves a thoughtful listen and a fair shake, that guilty pleasures are really just pleasures, that the music of an Ariana Grande can and should be taken as seriously as that of a U2.”

There is now a cadre of younger music writers devoted to documenting the true breadth of musical expression. The problem is that poptimism’s impulse to flatten the landscape fails to acknowledge how rocky the ground still is: how sexism and racism underpins the way many women and Black artists remain more embraced in the world of pop than rock. The only way to move the conversation forward – and reclaim any potential music criticism has to incite social change – is by fighting sexism and anti-Blackness with the same openness that Wenner revealed it. Otherwise, this whole controversy will just prove to be yet another moment of performative outrage that leaves the status quo unchecked”.

Maybe we still have too much of the ‘old guard’ holding way too much influence and their views and stubbornness hindering real progress. I really don’t think it is only that. I do agree with The Guardian that the industry has always been (and is now) sexist and racist. We all have a list of Black artists and Black women especially who are important, influential and vital. Great Black male artists doing phenomenal things and releasing music that is going to inspire people for decades to come. Maybe trying to articulate their merit and importance in terms of how bodies like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would understand it. There does need to be a reframing and redefining of importance and musical significance – taking it further away from white guys with guitars. One quote from Craig Seymour seems particularly timely: “The problem is that poptimism’s impulse to flatten the landscape fails to acknowledge how rocky the ground still is: how sexism and racism underpins the way many women and Black artists remain more embraced in the world of pop than rock”.

IN THIS PHOTO: The iconic genius Stevie Wonder/PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

When artists like Nova Twins, Bob Vylan and Corinne Bailey Rae are delivering some of the spikiest, most important and moving Rock/Rock-based music of the past couple of years, there are not many pages and articles dedicated to the modern Black queens of Rock. Black men who are modern legends and icons. It is vital we remember the legends. Though I feel certain genres are still perceived as white and being reserved for white men – Rock, Folk, Country, and even Rap are still having to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions without providing clear rationale. It is clear that things needs to change…though that eternal question remains: How do we do that?! New media is definitely shifting the narrative and is as open, embracing and diverse as it has ever been. It seems insane to think any right-minded journalist or author, when looking at music’s history and the pioneers, would only see white men. Look at modern music, and you can see the influence and impact that Black female and male artists of the past have had. How Black artists of today are inspiring so many others! Controversial and wrong-headed people like Jann Wenner, sadly, are not in a minority when they (intentionally or not) suggest that there are few women and Black men and women of note in music’s past. That sexism and racism is evident. Their mindsets and attitudes definitely are in…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Rolling Stone

NEED of retooling and remastering.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Nicki Wells

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Nicki Wells

_________

I adore a singer whose voice…

takes you somewhere magical! The last time I felt that was earlier this year when boygenius released their debut album, the record. That real beauty in their harmonies! That perfect blend. Billie Eilish, too, has that sort of fabulous and dreamy voice that has emotion and layers too. Billie Marten, yeas ago, when she released her debut album, Writing of Blues and Yellows. Such incredibly evocative and unforgettable singers. Nicki Wells is someone who very much fits into that category. Even though I have only recently discovered her music, her voice buckles my knees! I am immersed in her music and helpless but to surrender to it. With phenomenal songwriting and compositions that are so nuanced and scenic – in the sense they inspires visions of nature and eye-catching scenery -, Wells is an artist that everyone needs to hear! Her sound would be perfect for huge stations like BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music – and she would fit seamlessly onto their playlist. I love what she is putting out into the world. The London-based artist is a sensation. I am going to come to some interviews and a review of her album, Ellipsis. Before that, here is some background to Nicki Wells and her magnificent music:

“From folky roots, chilled electronica, rich sonic soundscapes to Indian classical inflections. All of these multi-faceted layers amalgamate, to create a rich musical palette of original sound” – Gig Soup

Singer, songwriter and composer Nicki Wells followed her 1st class honours degree in Music touring as a featured vocalist in Nitin Sawhney’s band. She has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues from London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House to Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage. Her voice has contributed to a number of films including Andy Serkis’s Mowgli, Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, Renny Harlin’s The Legend of Hercules and was a major part of the scores of BBC Documentaries such as The Human Planet series. Her first solo album Ocean was released in 2018 under the pseudonym TURYA (Listen to TURYA on Spotify.)

As a Composer in her own right, Nicki scored for Tanika Gupta’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Howard Brenton’s play Drawing the Line, receiving critical acclaim. She co-composed the score to Khyentse Norbu’s feature film Vara – A Blessing and has also composed five of contemporary dancer Aakash Odedra’s shows, which have featured in venues like Sadlers Wells, Royal Opera House and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, (winning the Amnesty International Award for the politically conscious show #JeSuis). Nicki also composed the score to documentary film maker Koen Suidgeest’s Girl Connected and then joined forces with renowned sitarist Anoushka Shankar to compose the score for upcoming documentary film about the Dalai Lama An Officer and His Holiness”.

With a great gig coming at Matthias Church, London on 29th November, I will make sure that I am there. One that cannot be missed! Go and book a ticket. You can buy Ellipsis now. I think songs from this album would work perfectly in T.V. and film. So atmospheric and engrossing are they, cuts such as Carry On and Warrior – a couple of my favourites – instantly fit in a particular scene/show in my mind. I am going to come to some personal insight from Nicki Wells. First, here is some background information about Ellipsis:

“Ellipsis, with its intertwining of Indian classical, Celtic folk, eastern European choral and western pop music, can undoubtedly credit its kaleidoscope of influences on Wells’ own fascinating heritage. Born in south London, she moved to a farm outside of Rome, Italy, when she was three years old, then to Himachal Pradesh, India – in the foothills of the Himalayas – three years later. Attending an international boarding school, Wells was surrounded by jungle and dramatic mountains, absorbing myriad languages and cultures away from the pervasive materialism of western society.

“Without question,” she responds, when asked whether her childhood has impacted her creative ethos. “I’m very used to movement and diverse ways of expressing myself. My work is definitely an amalgamation of all my experiences growing up; a combination of nature and nurture… where you live and how that shapes you, and what you take from life as you go through it.”

“There was always music around the house,” she recalls of her upbringing. Her English father, whose own troubadour nature led to a university friendship with folk icon Nick Drake, would play his favourites – Randy Newman, Bob Dylan – while her Swiss-French mother appreciated the intricate compositions of John Lennon and Kate Bush. Wells first began writing her own songs aged six, then, when the family moved to the Cotswolds when she was 10, got into Singer-Songwriters. “I wanted to be a singer,” she admits with a laugh. Aged 16, she was offered a choice between the renowned Brit School or the prestigious McDonald College in Sydney. Choosing Australia, she flew to the other side of the world, staying with family friends, and immersed herself in the city’s rich local music scene.

It was around this time that she stumbled upon the music of Nitin Sawhney. The British Asian artist has worked with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck and Sinead O’Connor, along with scoring the soundtracks to countless acclaimed films and TV series. “His melding of East and West made complete sense to me,” Wells says. This artistic appreciation was returned around the time when she studied at the Academy of Contemporary Music, where she was introduced to Sawhney by award-winning producer Pete “Boxsta” Martin. “Nitin came into the studio and I sang an ancient Sanskrit hymn,” she recalls. “He asked me to do a gig with him that ended up being 10 years of touring and all kinds of work… that was basically my university.”

It was Sawhney who produced Wells’ debut album, Ocean, which she released under the name TURYA, a project she began in 2015. “It’s derived from a Sanskrit word, turiya, which means the silence one experiences after sound,” she explains. “I was really interested in that concept: if you go to a performance and experience the ring of the instrument's final note, the sustained silence in between that and the applause is this thing, turiya, which you feel as a wave.” With Ocean, Wells dived into the elements: on the title track, her vocals rise and fall to mesmerising effect over soft ripples of piano. On opener “Rain”, electronic beats come into mingle with the more organic sounds: “I've walked for days alone/ And on my way, I found nothing,” she sings. “Heat of the sun, it burns/ Like those words, how they haunt me now.”

Ellipsis came into being when Wells moved from Greenwich, London to her mother’s home in the countryside during the pandemic. “It was actually great for our relationship, I think,” Wells, who is now based in Monmouth, Wales, says. “She really gave me the space and time to dive into my creative well. And I don’t think I’d have had that opportunity at any other point in my life. I definitely needed it.” Lockdown became a sort of “crazy, self-purging, creative period”, she recalls. “I wrote around 180 songs. Each day I’d go for a walk, and it’d be like catching these ideas with a net, going home and recording them.” Twelve of those songs made it on to Ellipsis, the first body of work Wells feels she has truly “given birth to” single handedly, one that asserts her coming into her own as an artist. “Every sound you hear was hand-crafted… it was like having my own chiselling tools, working on every detail”.

GuruViking · Ep46: Nicki Wells - Spirit And Song

Soul-baring and hugely enticing and fascinating, I am looking forward to seeing where Nicki Wells heads next. Ellipsis, in my mind, ranks alongside the best and most beautiful albums of this year. There are a few interviews from this year I want to bring in. It is useful, because we get to read different sides and aspects of Nicki Wells. She is a fascinating artist who will be playing huge stages very soon. Voice Mag spotlighted Wells prior to the release of Ellipsis. There are bits of the interview that particularly caught my eye. The more I learn about this majestic songwriter and her music, the more determined and resolved I am to explore more:

“A singer, a composer, a songwriter: Nicki Wells has worn many different kinds of hats in her career in music. A true citizen of the world, Nicki came to recognition working with Nitin Sawhney (who also produced her debut album OCEAN, which she released under the pseudonym TURYA), appearing on everything from TEDx talks to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage with him. Nicki’s blend of Indian classical music, Western classical, Folk and Jazz, along with a myriad of other influences have resulted in her music being truly one-of-a-kind.

Ellipsis is Nicki Wells’ debut under her own name, and the freedom of creating it almost single-handedly during lockdown resulted in an album of self-reflection and self-empowerment. “I think in a way it's more genuine to who I am,” she tells me, “I gave birth to these songs by myself without any producer or other engineer.”

“It was intensely personal and I just needed to do it by myself. It’s an album of roaring into existence as an artist.” “It was spiritual work, the whole album: …It was rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands mucky with creativity.”

“I think the need to hear one’s own current is really important as an artist, and that’s what I was able to do, probably for the first time in my life, in 2020 when I moved out of London to my Mum’s. Because my life before that was always very very social, always on the move…. But it’s really important to sometimes just switch off the television and then hear what’s bubbling inside.”

“Now that this world is becoming more and more technology based, I want to be more and more a recluse. There’s an element of just wanting to have a simple life, a couple of chickens, have some animals, have some fruit trees, and try and live off the grid a little bit”, she says with a bit of a wistful smile. “But obviously we are part of this world where it’s all very necessary to be part of these social media apps and stuff. But as a creative it’s harder to hear what you need to say.”

Sanskrit is a language that Nicki incorporates into much of her music: Turya, the name under which she previously released music, is derived from the Sanskrit word for the silence after sound. With Ellipsis also having meanings of the space between the tangible elements, I asked Nicki what it was about this concept that drew her so much to it.

“I find that the silence between the sound, or the space between form, is as important as the form and sound, and I think that a lot of the time that is very much overlooked. Because as humans we’re always chasing the answer, this quick release, this quick fix.” “I think the process of something becoming what it is is much more interesting to me than the actual result.”

“It is the silence that is the canvas of the sound, and that’s what gives it its structure; like space gives pottery its structure. (Nicki also makes pots as her merch under the name TURYA) I’m very interested in the in-betweens, not just the black and white but the greys. That’s always the interplay of life: that we’re always living in the formless and form. An idea is initially formless until it becomes form. Whether it’s a pot or whether it’s a song, suddenly something is tangible. And I’m very interested in that interplay between formlessness and form; and I also would say that about ourselves: I’m not necessarily interested in myself as a form, but I'm more interested in deconstructing myself to be formless. That’s why I like to self-examine where I’m at, because we are all changing [and] morphing… at any given point, and so I really need to sometimes focus in on where I’m at, to see what can I give, what can I offer with where I am at now”.

Rather than source the entirety of 15 Questions’ interview with Nicki Wells, there are some particularly I wanted to highlight. I love what Wells says about spirituality. How her creative process works. So rich are the songs you hear on Ellipsis, I was interested to learn how things started and came together:

“Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

There is an element of having a certain environment that is conducive to the creative process. I can’t create with a lot of mess around. A messy environment also gives you a messy mind.

I like to have a minimal environment, that is uncluttered. During recording I’ll always light a candle for example, to have a little ritual and blow it out after the recording as a kind of thank you.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

As I said above. And yes, lighting is so important too. For me, it has to be dim and cozy but if I’m writing during the day I like as much light as possible.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

The music comes easier to me. I usually write the music first then words come. I try to stay very close to my initial feeling and try not to dilute it otherwise it becomes something else and can be scattered or distracted.

Of course there are many times where a song is completely different to how you first imagined it. I like the song to guide the way for me and I’ll try to listen carefully to the direction it wants to go.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics come after music for me. I like to read books, poetry which really inspire lyrics.

Sometimes I have watched a film and wrote a song about the same kind of narrative.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard

Imagination, poetry, a play on words, humour and wit when appropriate and a feeling of not taking yourself so seriously. As you would converse with a friend, to have that informality, ease and gentility.

The best songwriters for me are the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

By trusting the process, being concentrated and open to the creative flow.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Exactly the latter.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I go with it. Sometimes I try to go back and focus harder on the original feeling but if it’s not meant to be, then I allow myself to be swept with the creative tide and the song go where it needs to.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Everything is spiritual. The word spiritual itself has come with a lot of associations and concepts and that’s a problem. To me it’s about being part of a flow in an open and surrendered state and in that there will always be gifts, surprises and lessons along the way.

Spirituality is a way of being not a way of doing. If you are in that childlike curious, open yet focused state, quite frankly I think you’re there. And the creativity can flourish within that state”.

It is pleasing to discover that Nicki Wells is already in the process of making another album! I learned this when reading Charm Music Magazine’s interview with a stunning artist who has one of the most distinct and spellbinding voices in modern music. If you have not discovered Nicki Wells yet, then you really need to follow her:

“The album's imagery and allegorical lyrics have a way of evoking vivid imagery. How did you approach the process of crafting these lyrics and what do you hope listeners take away from the imagery you've created?

As a person I think very allegorically. Pretty much all of my songs derive from a vivid visual narrative. When I write songs, it’s often like watching a movie in my mind. I hope listeners draw out their own imagery from the lyrics, as they would from a novel. Everyone has their own unique interpretation of a narrative.

"Ellipsis" features a track with the same name that's purely instrumental. Can you share your perspective on how this track complements the rest of the album and what it represents?

Ellipsis was the symbol of (…) of the album. At the end of a sentence which invites contemplation or to allow that information to sink in. It is the last track of the album and wordless because by then I said everything I needed to say.

@nickiwellsmusic The Vinyl of my album Ellipsis are here and they are stunning! Head over to my bandcamp to get your own copy! #vinyl #album #ellipsis #newmusic #albumoutnow #fyp #fypシ #singer #songwriter ♬ original sound - Nicki Wells

If you had to choose only one song from the album, which one would it be and why?

I’d probably say You’re Alright Kid because that was a song I had written to my six year old self and it was very personal and emotional for me to write. It was a hug to my child self and an image of holding her hand walking together towards her future.

Looking ahead, you have an upcoming live show at St Matthias Church in London. How does performing live contribute to your artistic expression and what can your audience expect from this upcoming performance?

Performing live is a whole other dimension of being a creative and I am looking forward to bringing these songs alive in a live context. We have a very exciting band which includes a string quartet and since the album has strings throughout the record, it will be a magical experience to have them live. I hope the audience are taken deep into the world of Ellipsis and come out feeling fresh and empowered.

After the release of Ellipsis, what are your aspirations and plans for the future? Are there any themes or musical directions you're excited to explore in your upcoming projects?

Yes, absolutely! I am already getting started with the next album and I have also joined forces with my husband Tarq Bowen for a duo project we have started called Bowen Wells which we are excited to explore. It’s a different sound to my own original work, very fun, lively and more of an Americana folk-rock feel!”.

I will come to some reviews soon. I feel Ellipsis is an album that warranted some attention and press love from mainstream sources. The music is definitely strong and worthy enough to get under their radar. I hope that they do tune themselves Nicki Wells’ way in the future! With that London November gig coming up, I feel it will not be too long until she is demand in nations like the U.S. and Australia. I will get to a review of Ellipsis by York Calling. This is what they had to say about a diamond of an album:

“With her new album, Nicki combines classical influences from around the world. There are tastes of India, Celtic folk, and eastern European choral music alongside western pop and influences from Wells’ own heritage. Born in South London, she moved to rural Italy when she was three. Later, she found herself in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. Her formal education then took her to Sydney, Australia before a return to the UK. This international upbringing has given Nicki an unusual and unique point of view which she brings to her music.

Nicki’s sound is influenced by a range of musicians, most notably the legend that is Nitin Sawhney who has worked with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Sinead O’Connor. Nitin would go on to produce Nicki’s first album Ocean released under the name TURYA.

Nicki’s new album Ellipsis is something of a re-announcement of her music and came about after she had moved from Greenwich in London to her mother’s home in the countryside during the coronavirus pandemic. It opens with Never Will. A delicate piano-led number, it’s a gentle and welcoming introduction to the album’s world. Nicki’s vocals are arrestingly soft. I found myself hanging on every word she sang.

Pavement keeps the piano but ramps up the atmosphere. It’s a dark and moody moment with beautifully descriptive lyrics that will haunt you. Carry On follows in much the same vein but introduces a hopefulness with its lyrical story. The Night brings with it acoustic guitar and ghostly harmonies. She Made You Feel Something is a beautifully textured track with ambient percussion and folksy vocals. The aforementioned Holy Smoke closes the first half of the album with an understated, memorable highlight.

The second half of the album opens with the contemplative Sidelines. Nicki’s vocals are particularly beautiful during its stripped back first verse. I Have Longed To Be Here is a beautifully rich and meditative track where Nicki’s eastern influences are worn proud. Silent One is slow-burning, unfolding over six and a half minutes. The natural romance of its journey makes it another highlight.

You’re Alright Kid is a track that’s touched with the nostalgia of youth mixed with the melancholy of adulthood. Warrior has an understated sense of triumph. It builds to a rousing crescendo which gives us the album’s emotional high point before title track Ellipsis closes the album with a pulsating final chapter that combines electronic and acoustic instrumentals to great effect.

Ellipsis is an ambitious effort from an artist who has been through it all. Nicki proves herself as a fiery and accomplished song writer with this collection. Its emotional story is second to none and she brings such a wonderfully unique tapestry of sounds across its twelve tracks. This is an album to switch off and get lost to”.

One more review before we come to an end. It has been a real pleasure discovering more about this terrific artist. That mixture of sounds and influences stands Nicki Wells out as a very promising and must-hear talent. Someone with a very bright and interesting future ahead:

“At the start of this review, I want to highlight just how difficult it is to effectively convey themes while still adopting a minimalist, sparse sound—almost as if to see what it is that can be done while still sticking to the very fundamentals of what has defined music for the last 3000 years. I’m glad to report that Nicki does it flawlessly on “Ellipsis”.

The album starts out with “Never Will”, a beautiful ballad with not much for Nicki to hide behind but the faint pianos in the background. As the song starts out, you are immediately drawn into the lush and dreamy soundscape with her voice filling up your ears in almost an ethereal fashion. As the song develops, you are introduced to the skilful harmonies, well-articulated themes, and the promise of these elements just getting better throughout the album.

And get better it does! With the mild percussion entering the scene on “Pavement”, the theme of minimal, less-is-more continues, only this time with a little more drive and panache, which is a welcome change indeed. As we “Carry On”, we are immediately transported to a slightly darker sound, with deep, rumbling orchestral drums in the background, as the song presents an almost angelic sound, as if it is conveyed from the heavens above itself.

The strings appear on the next song, “The Night”, while her vocals remain the centre stage of the entire performance—and deservedly so! I was left mesmerized as she effortlessly wafted between melodic ideas, chord progressions, and energy changes. Class act so far!

As we get near the middle of Ellipsis, “She Made You Feel Something”, is quite the passionate number, with the poignance to mean the message it truly tries to convey. As she delves into themes of heartbreak, and encouragement, the vocal harmonies take the cake on the song, with intricate and expressive layering that really strike chords in you; they definitely did so in me.

With “Holy Smoke”, the next song, the themes keep getting more melancholic and poignant, with the execution remaining as crisp and flawless as ever. I will take a minute here to comment that it is challenging to keep sound and emotional intensity unwavering throughout an album of this length, much less we have a story with themes that each of the individual songs establishes. This is the kind of album that really goes the extra mile to demonstrate how it is done, and I do not overstate it when I say that “Ellipsis” really is a master class in more ways than one.

A special mention from Ellipsis is “I Have Longed To Be Here”, the kind of song that delves really into vocal experimentation with its long, drawn-out notes as well as powerful, moving strings in the background, coupled with themes of wistfulness, melancholy, and unadulterated power. The harmony towards the end of this song is an easy 20/10 performance, with something about it really, really moving something in me”.

Go and listen to Ellipsis. Follow Nicki Wells on social media, and really embrace and explore an artist who is producing such wonderous and unforgettable music! Her production and engineering work on Ellipsis is incredible. I can see her being hired as a producer and engineer. At a time when few women in the industry are noted because of their technical skills – and studios still have a massive gender disparity -, it would be good to remember that producing and engineering are two essential levels of an album. Getting the sound right. Making sure all the music is perfect. Ensuring the songs are mixed properly and there is that flow through the album. Getting the sequencing right too…in addition to that communication with the musicians. Ensuring everything on the album sounds as good as it could possibly be. Such an important talent in the music industry, I felt compelled to spotlight and salute…

THIS magnificent human.

_____________

Follow Nicki Wells

Official:

https://www.nickiwells.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nickiwells/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nickiwellsmusic

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@nickiwellsmusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0z6TVKyjgXLDIY0FSIIDUv?si=BH6R_nl1TcKfWjmE4XzdNQ

Bandcamp:

https://nickiwellsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ellipsis

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@nickiwellsmusic

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/nickiwellsmusic/

FEATURE: But That Dream Is Your Enemy: Kate Bush’s Experiment IV at Thirty-Seven

FEATURE:

 

 

But That Dream Is Your Enemy

Kate Bush’s Experiment IV at Thirty-Seven

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I don’t have too much extra…

to add to previous features about Experiment IV. It is thirty-seven on 27th October, so I feel compelled to revisit it. Many Kate Bush fans might not know about this track. There have been some classics that never made it onto a studio album or were B-sides. I have argued before how Experiment IV would have sounded great on Hounds of Love. Even if Bush wrote Experiment IV too late in that respect, it would seem to fit nicely on the first side. Given that this song came out not long after Hounds of Love and yet does not receive the same sort of love and airplay is confusing. The track was a special single/addition to Bush’s greatest hits album, The Whole Story, It is usually the case that when an artist releases a greatest hits collection, there is a new track. Maybe a single or new song that didn’t fit onto a studio album. Normally they are not too much to write home about. I have always liked Experiment IV. Reaching number thirty-seven in the U.K. when it was released as a single, here is an extract from when Kate Bush posted to ger official website to discuss the song:

“This was written as an extra track for the compilation album The Whole Story and was released as the single. I was excited at the opportunity of directing the video and not having to appear in it other than in a minor role, especially as this song told a story that could be challenging to tell visually. I chose to film it in a very handsome old military hospital that was derelict at the time. It was a huge, labyrinthine hospital with incredibly long corridors, which was one reason for choosing it. Florence Nightingale had been involved in the design of the hospital. Not something she is well known for but she actually had a huge impact on hospital design that was pioneering and changed the way hospitals were designed from then on.

The video was an intense project and not a comfortable shoot, as you can imagine - a giant of a building, damp and full of shadows with no lighting or heating but it was like a dream to work with such a talented crew and cast with Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Peter Vaughn and Richard Vernon in the starring roles. It was a strange and eerie feeling bringing parts of the hospital to life again. Not long after our work there it was converted into luxury apartments. I can imagine that some of those glamorous rooms have uninvited soldiers and nurses dropping by for a cup of tea and a Hobnob.

We had to create a recording studio for the video, so tape machines and outboard gear were recruited from my recording studio and the mixing console was very kindly lent to us by Abbey Road Studios. It was the desk the Beatles had used - me too, when we’d made the album Never For Ever in Studio Two. It was such a characterful desk that would’ve looked right at home in any vintage aircraft. Although it was a tough shoot it was a lot of fun and everyone worked so hard for such long hours. I was really pleased with the result. (KateBush.com, February 2019)”.

The Whole Story – which I shall write about closer to its anniversary in November – has two interesting facts. Apart from Experiment IV being the only new song on the collection, there is a new recording of Wuthering Heights. A new vocal. That was the B-side on the U.K. 7” release of Experiment IV. I have written before claiming the track is one of Kate Bush’s most underrated. It is definitely one that does not get a whole load of attention.

There are a few bits out there. This webpage has some interesting observations and details. It did seem like the music press were favourable towards Experiment IV in 1986. There is a lot of horror baked into the song’s sound and lyrics. The video – directed by Kate Bush – is quite frightening and intense. With images and screenshots that could be matched to Stranger Things or Aphex Twin’s video for Come to Daddy, it is definitely influential and iconic.

“Throughout the song the listener is fed snippets of exactly what has gone into creating this devastating sound – From the painful cries of mothers, To the terrifying scream... We recorded it and put it into our machine. The dark subject matter of both the lyrics and the video - sinister music that can harm and kill the listener, coupled with the strange technology the scientists use to create it (most hauntingly of all it’s never revealed why) - calls to mind the work of British sci-fi/horror writer Nigel Kneale, who frequently blended science and supernaturalism with anti-authoritarian undertones. In works such as Halloween III and The Woman in Black – and indeed John Carpenter’s homage to the work of Neale, Prince of Darkness – technology is presented as a quasi-magical force with severely sinister connotations.

Dawn French and Hugh Laurie provide a little comic relief as two scientists ensconced in the dubious research, and the reluctant Professor overseeing the research is named Jerry Coe; perhaps a reference to Jericho, the walls of which crumbled at the sound of the Israelites’ trumpets at the end of a war, as described in the biblical book of Joshua.

 The horrific effects of the scientists’ research is featured throughout the video, as various test-subjects are shown writhing around in straitjackets after hearing the sound. Finally, when the sound is 'unveiled', it appears as a spectral siren which suddenly takes on the form of a terrifying winged ghoul, which then proceeds to wreck havoc in the lab, slaughtering the scientists and test-subjects alike. The camera then assumes the role of the creature and pursues various scientists along the starkly lit and increasingly chaotic corridors of the facility, eventually tracking outside to reveal the rather apocalyptic aftermath of the incident – pre-empting ‘contagion horrors’ such as 28 Days Later etc. A cordoned-off vicinity around a music shop (revealed to be a front for the shady government project) – in which the shopkeeper is displaying copies of Experiment IV – is strewn with the bodies of the dead. Lastly, we see Ms Bush hitch-hiking on a nearby stretch of road and clambering into a van, but before she does, she turns to wink at us knowingly, suggesting this is only the beginning of her deadly mission… It could sing you to sleep, But that dream is your enemy! Incidentally, the sound of the helicopter heard at the end of the song as the military make a hasty retreat, is the very same helicopter sound heard in Pink Floyd's The Happiest Days of Our Lives from The Wall. Dave Gilmour and Kate are good friends.

Experiment IV is also notable for its hauntingly beautiful violin work courtesy of Nigel Kennedy, who at one point replicates Bernard Herrmann's famous stabbing strings from the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho”.

Yes!#KateBush in her set for the video Experiment IV on the left, Vecna on the #StrangerThings set on the right. pic.twitter.com/jjZQXGEnDx

— FishPeople Kate Bush (@FishPeopleFC) June 17, 2022

In 2022, GQ noted how Stranger Things could have been inspired by Kate Bush’s video for Experiment IV. That Netflix show featured Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and sent it to the top of the singles chart in the U.K. I think Experiment IV is influential in its impact on T.V. and music videos. I do really love the lyrics. This experiment being devised in a lab or secret location. Never mentioned whether this was a warfare device or torture machine, it is one that can produce sounds that kill people. A song that emphasises how Bush’s inspirations are never traditional or predictable! The lines of “But they told us/All they wanted/Was a sound that could kill someone/From a distance/So we go ahead/And the meters are over in the red/It's a mistake we've made” really stick in my mind. Bush’s vocal delivery summons up chills and beauty at the same time. Even though it was not ignored, Experiment IV does feel like a lesser-known and slightly overlooked part of her history. She was doubtful about a greatest hits album coming out. When it went to number one and was really popular, it appeared any cynicism was misplaced. I always wonder whether she had a view of doing something more with Experiment IV. There are so many of her songs that could be threaded together into a short film. Bush’s original video is great though, as shows such as Stranger Things seem to nod to it, a modern-day updating would be interesting. A song never performed live – except an appearance on Wogan around its release -, this is something I would love to see realised for the stage. On 26th October, the majestic and haunting Experiment IV is thirty-seven. I think people should check it out. Its video was banned by Top of The Pops because it was considered too violent. It was also nominated for the Best Concept Music Video at the 1988 Grammy Awards. This compelling and hugely interesting track – with its star-studded video – is one that should get…

A lot more attention.