FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

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FOR this Vinyl Corner…

I am recommending the classic Time Out from The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Released in 1959 on Columbia Records, it was recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. Even if you are not a Jazz fan, I would urge people to get the album on vinyl. It is a masterpiece that still sounds breathtaking over sixty years since it was released. Even though the album is known for its famous hit, Take Five (which was actually written by Paul Desmond), there is so much to appreciate throughout the album. As I do with these features, I am going to source a couple of reviews. Before that, this article talked about Time Out and why the signature and sound of Take Five was especially bold and unusual in 1959’s Jazz world:

“Hollywood knows a good stereotype when it sees one, hick or slick, and “Brubeck” meant cerebral, cool, West Coast. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was already one of the hottest ensembles in jazz in the ’50s, playing hundreds of concerts, and releasing multiple LPs, every year. Brubeck’s face had been on the cover of Time magazine in 1954, Jailhouse Rock came out in 1957, and it would still be two years before the Quartet had its incandescent burst into the stratosphere—and into jazz history—with the release of Time Out.

Led by the hit single “Take Five,” written by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, Time Out was the first jazz album to sell a million copies. It broke many conventions in achieving that. For one thing, it was a jazz album with nothing but original pieces. No comforting “standards” were on it to reassure buyers wary of new music.

For another, the cover art was a contemporary, abstract painting. People like to look at faces, especially of celebrities, but there were no photos of the popular musicians greeting the public, just egg shapes and abutting slaps of color.

But the biggest risk, of course, was the music. “Take Five” added one little beat to the normal 4/4 pulse and made it 5/4, an unheard-of time signature for jazz. It’s found in avant-garde music or in folk traditions tucked away in Hungary, India... or in Turkey, where Dave discovered it. On tour, he heard local musicians playing odd rhythms and decided right there that he’d make a jazz album employing unusual time signatures. “Blue Rondo à la Turk” in a crazily sliced 9/8 was born there, and so was Brubeck’s lasting popularity.

These are beats you can’t dance to and can’t sing to, or so we’d think. The album was a gauntlet slammed into the ground of jazz. With Time Out, it’s as if Dave Brubeck were announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one rule in jazz. It’s got to swing. And we can swing in 4, 3, 5, 7, 9, or anything. Here we go.” And off they went. “Take Five” was not only the Quartet’s biggest hit, it is still the biggest jazz single in history.

Desmond’s tune, and his sound, epitomize the ice-smooth and pungent spice of his talent. He likened his own playing to a dry martini, and there’s never been a better description. His supple, mid-air twists still amaze, but he’s a giant because of the non-headlining gifts he prized above all others. In a letter to his father he listed them: “beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity.”

He was Charlie Parker’s favorite alto player. Desmond admired Parker and other bop musicians, but knew he could never be one. He joked, “I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 for quietness.”

Joe Morello is the kind of drummer whose talent knocks you down in stages. He’s not the freight train that Art Blakey was, nor a Buddy Rich Formula One race car. Philly Joe Jones played like he was falling down a flight of stairs and then strolled away smiling, but Joe Morello was Picasso, painting himself into cubist corners and turning the trap set into a mirage. Or like M.C. Escher, with finely detailed, perfectly executed stick-work leading you down a stairwell and out onto a roof.

But he could shout, too. His solo on the “Take Five” single sneaks in, stutter-stepping, but before long he’s slamming doors, or the same door, over and over, until he’s satisfied that it’ll say shut. Then he skips away on the ride cymbal.

With time-bending sax and shape-shifting drums, the bass player had better be strong, and Eugene Wright is that rock. His playing has been described as “Kansas City,” which, to my ears, in the context of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, means solid and fluid at the same time. It’s steady but always singing and tuneful. Wright is more than just the reliable springboard for the others, but a master technician of blues and feel. The little laugh at the end of “Unsquare Dance,” a blues Rubik's Cube from the Time Further Out album, is Wright’s relief that their layered syncopations over 7/4 actually worked!

The secret of Brubeck’s music, though, and of his success, has nothing to do with style. His impact on jazz isn’t because he's cool or West Coast. It’s not that Brubeck didn’t play standards (he did). It’s not even rhythm or time signatures or the supposed braininess Hollywood made him the poster boy for. If you want intellect, after all, bop’s your game.

No, Dave Brubeck’s secret is that his music is beautiful—unerringly, dreamily, laughingly beautiful. Paul Desmond’s playing, Joe Morello’s, Eugene Wright’s: all beautiful. He wrote new standards. Jazz or no jazz, he wrote songs, and each solo within the song was also a song. Dave Brubeck made music like no one else. That is his secret, and that is his legacy”.

It is a good time to get to some reviews. As I said, one does not need to be a Jazz aficionado or lover to understand what Time Out is all about. It is such a rich, detailed and wonderfully performed album that everyone should own. This is what AllMusic said in their review:

“Dave Brubeck's defining masterpiece, Time Out is one of the most rhythmically innovative albums in jazz history, the first to consciously explore time signatures outside of the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. It was a risky move -- Brubeck's record company wasn't keen on releasing such an arty project, and many critics initially roasted him for tampering with jazz's rhythmic foundation. But for once, public taste was more advanced than that of the critics. Buoyed by a hit single in altoist Paul Desmond's ubiquitous "Take Five," Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That's a testament to Brubeck and Desmond's abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt -- it's just that they're not jarring. Brubeck's classic "Blue Rondo à la Turk" blends jazz with classical form and Turkish folk rhythms, while "Take Five," despite its overexposure, really is a masterpiece; listen to how well Desmond's solo phrasing fits the 5/4 meter, and how much Joe Morello's drum solo bends time without getting lost. The other selections are richly melodic as well, and even when the meters are even, the group sets up shifting polyrhythmic counterpoints that nod to African and Eastern musics. Some have come to disdain Time Out as its become increasingly synonymous with upscale coffeehouse ambience, but as someone once said of Shakespeare, it's really very good in spite of the people who like it. It doesn't just sound sophisticated -- it really is sophisticated music, which lends itself to cerebral appreciation, yet never stops swinging. Countless other musicians built on its pioneering experiments, yet it's amazingly accessible for all its advanced thinking, a rare feat in any art form. This belongs in even the most rudimentary jazz collection”.

To round off, here is a link, where All About Jazz reassessed Time Out in 2011. They start by saying that the album is not the only Jazz milestone and masterpiece released in 1959:

“The album is one of two masterpieces made in 1959 sharing that fate. The other is trumpeter Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia). But Brubeck's album has suffered the most. Davis' studied cultivation of his image, along with such spurious qualifications for hipsterdom as his bouts of heroin and cocaine addiction, mean that Kind of Blue's magic still shines through the cloak of over-familiarity.

Time Out, on the other hand, was made by a quartet which included three nerdy looking white guys in college professor spectacles. Plus it spawned an international hit single in "Take Five"/"Blue Rondo A La Turk." With all that going against it, you had—and, perhaps, still have—to be truly hip to recognize the album's perfection.

Despite its eventual commercial success, Time Out was slow off the blocks. Columbia executives thought Brubeck's exploration of unusual time signatures (5/4, 9/8, 6/4, 3/4) would baffle the public and they did little to promote the disc. But the public proved to be thoroughly unbaffled and sales multiplied through word of mouth, fired by the quartet's relentless touring. Finally, a year after Time Out's release, the "Take Five" single was put out and history made.

Columbia then got the group back in the studio in short order to record a follow-up, Time Further Out (1961), another fine album which included the hit "It's a Raggy Waltz."

"Take Five" includes one of the most thrilling drum solos ever recorded, a 2:20 master class in percussive accentuation, colorization and structure. Unlike the rest of Time Out, which was composed by Brubeck, the tune was written by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. "It was never supposed to be a hit," Desmond said later. "It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo." Morello had joined the quartet in 1956 over Desmond's initial objection: the saxophonist was concerned that Morello's muscular style would jar with his own lyrical approach. Desmond was won over, and when the composer royalties for "Take Five" started pouring in, he must have been relieved Brubeck had stood his ground and insisted on hiring Morello.

There is much, much more to love about Time Out, most particularly Desmond's deceptively fragile alto and Brubeck's unique blend of blues tonalities, two-fisted block chording, and advanced, European-derived harmonization. And a bunch of great tunes including "Take Five," "Blue Rondo A La Turk," "Strange Meadow Lark," "Three to Get Ready" and "Kathy's Waltz," named after Brubeck's daughter, Cathy, but misspelled by the sleeve's typographer.

If Time Out has become a little inaudible in your life, it is time to play it again and marvel”.

A magnificent and hugely important album that definitely warrants more mainstream attention, 1959’s Time Out is perfect on vinyl. From Blue Rondo à la Turk to Pick Up Sticks through Take Five, there are few albums as mesmerising as The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s finest work. This is a great album that…

VINYL was intended for.

FEATURE: All Yours: Back to the Mighty Babooshka

FEATURE:

 

 

All Yours

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Back to the Mighty Babooshka

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I do some song-specific features…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the German T.V. show, Rock Pop, on 13th September, 1980 performing Babooshka

about Kate Bush now and then. The reason I am returning to Babooshka is that I have new angles. In fact, I saw photos shared online regarding the single cover; the shots that were taken to promote it. I think John Carder Bush’s (her brother) photos are among the very best on that shoot. Released on 27th June, 1980, Babooshka was the second single (after Breathing) from Bush’s third studio album, Never for Ever. I will go over a couple of bits that I have included in other features about the song. Undoubtedly one of her greatest tracks, I was thinking about Bush’s album openers and how they draw you in. A couple of weeks back, Adele asked Spotify to disable the shuffle feature so that she and other artists could have their albums enjoyed in the running order intended. Although I have suggested in other features how a couple of Bush’s albums might be improved with the rearrangement of a few songs, she is an artist who takes a lot of time to consider the sequencing. Never for Ever starts remarkably with Babooshka! It is a song that showcases the sonic leap Bush took between Never for Ever and her previous album, Lionheart (1978). Evocative and quite epic, it starts an album that remains underrated. Prior to coming to some new thoughts about this song, it is worth getting some story and quotes from Kate Bush herself. Produced alongside Jon Kelly and reaching number five in the U.K, this is a song that has a remarkably memorable music video to boot!

Bush performed Babooshka live on a variety of European shows. The costumes she wore for each are incredible (I found a video from 1979 where Bush discussed playing live and the fact that she wanted to remain grounded). I shall come to that. First, and to get some explanation behind the song, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia helps out:

“Apparently it is grandmother, it's also a headdress that people wear. But when I wrote the song it was just a name that literally came into my mind, I've presumed I've got it from a fairy story I'd read when I was a child. And after having written the song a series of incredible coincidences happened where I'd turned on the television and there was Donald Swan singing about Babooshka. So I thought, "Well, there's got to be someone who's actually called Babooshka." So I was looking through Radio Times and there, another coincidence, there was an opera called Babooshka. Apparently she was the lady that the three kings went to see because the star stopped over her house and they thought "Jesus is in there".' So they went in and he wasn't. And they wouldn't let her come with them to find the baby and she spent the rest of her life looking for him and she never found him. And also a friend of mine had a cat called Babooshka. So these really extraordinary things that kept coming up when in fact it was just a name that came into my head at the time purely because it fitted. (Peter Powell interview, Radio 1 (UK), 11 October 1980)

It was really a theme that has fascinated me for some time. It's based on a theme that is often used in folk songs, which is where the wife of the husband begins to feel that perhaps he's not faithful. And there's no real strength in her feelings, it's just more or less paranoia suspicions, and so she starts thinking that she's going to test him, just to see if he's faithful. So what she does is she gets herself a pseudonym, which happens to be Babooshka, and she sends him a letter. And he responds very well to the letter, because as he reads it, he recognises the wife that he had a couple of years ago, who was happy, in the letter. And so he likes it, and she decides to take it even further and get a meeting together to see how he reacts to this Babooshka lady instead of her. When he meets her, again because she is so similar to his wife, the one that he loves, he's very attracted to her. Of course she is very annoyed and the break in the song is just throwing the restaurant at him...  (...) The whole idea of the song is really the futility and the stupidness of humans and how by our own thinking, spinning around in our own ideas we come up with completely paranoid facts. So in her situation she was in fact suspicious of a man who was doing nothing wrong, he loved her very much indeed. Through her own suspicions and evil thoughts she's really ruining the relationship. (Countdown Australia, 1980)”.

There are so many things to love about Babooshka. The video alone is one! It is iconic in her cannon. Her videos up until this point had been original and had lots of interesting things in them but, compare Babooshka to videos for The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Hammer Horror and even Wow, and Babooshka seems like a step forward. The video depicts Bush beside a double bass (symbolising her/the protagonist’s husband). She is wearing a black bodysuit and a veil in her role as the embittered wife. When the chorus comes, her outfit changes into a mythlike Russian costume as her alter-ego, Babooshka. It is a very sexy and bold moment that announced that Bush was taking her music somewhere new! The use of the Fairlight CMI (she was introduced to the technological goldmine by Peter Gabriel) adds some great effects (including the sound of breaking glass). Some great balalaika by Paddy Bush and one of Bush’s most confident and fascinating vocal performances makes Babooshka this treasure of a song. I feel Babooshka is one of Bush’s more under-appreciated songs. That might sound insane considering that is charted well and is played a lot. When critics and fans rank her singles, Babooshka does not make the top five all of the time. I think it warrants a place there. One cannot overlook the impact of Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes but, in 1980, Bush seemed to be making this statement with Babooshka. It is so different to anything that she had released to that point. The lyrics paint this beautiful picture of mistrust and mystery. One of my favourite ever Kate Bush verses is this: “And when he laid eyes on her/He got the feeling they had met before/Uncanny/How she/Reminds him of his little lady/Capacity to give him all he needs”.

There are a couple of detailed articles that I want to source from. The first, from Dreams of Orgonon examines the story and inspirations behind the song. I love what is observed about Baboshka’s relationship dynamic, and the moral ambiguity:

“Wuthering Heights” was a reunion of lovers. “Babooshka” relates the slow burn of a dysfunctional relationship, culminating in a glam psychotic break. The song’s title character acts as if Bush intended to finally write the Catherine of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: a petty, jealous hooligan ruins her relationship with her partner in a frantic bout of possessiveness.  Her plan, of course, is barmy — Babooshka tests her husband’s loyalty by catfishing him through “scented letters” (not a great plan — what happens if Babooshka’s husband finds these letters on a desk while the lady of the house makes herself some Earl Grey? Somebody make a short film about this). Babooshka uses these letters to arrange a tête-à-tête between her husband and her assumed personality — “just like/his wife/but how she was before the years flew by.” The song is unclear on whether Babooshka is recognized by her husband, merely suggesting he gives into her whims (he’s absolutely a sub). Babooshka’s self-poisoning narcissism breaks their relationship, creating a process of martial recursion in which the fear of a relationship’s ending itself ends that relationship.

But what of the relationship’s nature? The details of the emotional split between the couple is expressed vaguely. “Babooshka” is predicated on its protagonist’s desire to “test her husband,” and only supplies the occasional detail on the couple’s relationship. When the husband reads the catfish letters (someone please write a biography of me and title it The Catfish Letters), he observes that she resembles his wife “before the tears/and how she was before the years flew by.” Evidently their marriage was happy at one point, before some cataclysm ruptured it and damned them to a joyless union. Before Babooshka turned to suspicion and jealousy, she had the “capacity to give him all he needs” (we could dedicate an entire piece to the fact that the husband obviously has a mommy kink, but let’s try to keep our readership here). Her scheme to win him over is an expression of desire to return to the joy of their early married years, an act of futile nostalgia. The fantasy she enacts is not simply toxic; it’s regressive and pitiful.

Of course, the song’s moral ambiguity is its most interesting aspect. While there’s an almost reactionary slant to the way “Babooshka” perceives relationships, particularly in the way it treats gender along binary and determinist lines, Bush does push against the grain. She often demonstrates a willingness to interrogate the internal experiences of her characters, particularly women characters. Exploring the ramifications of jealousy is crucial to imbuing her characters with interiority. Bush has Babooshka’s husband failing similarly, even if she doesn’t realize it. Most texts are buzzing with suggestions their authors haven’t considered. In the case of “Babooshka,” Bush enacts a complex meditation on how gendered expectations can poison relationships. Babooshka lets her suspicions and preoccupation with re-becoming young and glamorous overcome her life, and her husband lets his treacherous predilections towards young beauty lead him astray. No party comes out morally in the clear, and yet neither is entirely unsympathetic. They’re trapped in an ugly binary where people are programmed to perform in ways incompatible with human psychology. If there’s a way to use the framework of folklore in a thoughtful and modern way, this is it.

As such, “Babooshka” makes the case that Kate Bush’s songwriting can be multiple things at once and create a conflicting hive of meaning, and that Bush’s love for the archaic is hardly blinded by a nostalgic haze. She demonstrates a consistent willingness to interrogate how stories like these work, how human beings act when plugged into myth and folklore, and the ways in which these situations are incompatible with humanity. Some of the most complex women in fiction are characters in Kate Bush songs. Never for Ever’s status as the first studio album by a female artist to reach #1 in the UK remains significant for a number of reasons. If Dreams of Orgonon has a thesis, it’s that Kate Bush is a traditionally-minded person who can’t stop herself from writing feminist songs. Break the glass. Howl “Babooshka, ya-ya!” The 1980s are here, and there’s a new swordmistress of chaos to herald them”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Many do not realise that Bush’s songs, in various ways, have helped shape how we view various cultures and nations. Babooshka’s Russian-sounding/named title – though misspelt - was a bit of a breakthrough. At a time when the Cold War was dividing the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, not that many artists – certainty in the West – were writing anything that nodded to the Soviet Union. The Guardian wrote an interesting article in 2014 (as Bush came to the stage for her residency, Before the Dawn). They argue how, as many had a dodgy and stereotyped view of Russians, Babooshka helped changed things:

“Since the concerts were announced, everyone has had something to say about why Kate Bush matters. For me Bush’s music touched parts of the brain that other less cerebral 70s singers didn’t come close to reaching.

For instance, her 1978 No 1 single Wuthering Heights rescued Emily Brontë’s novel from languishing dustily on school exam syllabuses, unloved by unmotivated teenage readers, and gave it a new generation of admirers. The plaintive refrain, “Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home,” brought chillingly back to life the uncanny nightmare episode at the start of the book.

For me, though, the key song in Kate Bush’s repertoire is not Wuthering Heights but Babooshka, her Russian-ish single from 1980 – a hit in many countries, not least Britain, France and America.

As a London schoolgirl studying Russian at the time, I didn’t care at all that Kate Bush pronounced the Russian name with the stress in the wrong place, and clearly had no idea that it meant “granny”. I just remember being gobsmacked to realise that any sort of Russian theme could come up in the charts at all – let alone one that didn’t fit either of the two prevailing Russian stereotypes. In those iron curtain days, to my mind Russians were either Ealing countesses, the children and grandchildren of the dispossessed, impoverished, desperately genteel White Russians who’d escaped from the 1917 revolution with nothing but their titles. Or they were solid, slab-faced politburo men from the newspapers, in solid suits, with hair lacquered into silvery central committee quiffs which always rather reminded me of menacing ice-cream cones.

Then suddenly this weird little fairytale about a love test gone wrong, full of the chirpy yet minor cadences of eastern folk and gypsy music, was on everyone’s lips all over the western world.

The song tells the story of a wife trying to check her husband’s loyalty by sending him notes purporting to come from a younger woman, which she signs “Babooshka”. Her fear that her husband no longer sees her as young and attractive are borne out by the barbed lines conveying his thoughts: “Just like his wife before she ‘freezed’ on him / Just like his wife when she was beautiful”. The trap is set when, in her bitterness and paranoia, Babooshka arranges to meet her husband, who is attracted to her alter-ego character because she reminds him of his wife in earlier times – and so she lets her fears ruin her marriage.

 The video featured Bush beside a double bass symbolising the husband, wearing a black bodysuit and a veil in her role as the embittered wife, then changing into an extravagant, myth-like and rather sparse “Russian” costume as Babooshka. It was a kind of mass-culture rethink of some of the themes of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, the Shostakovich opera which had so annoyed Stalin – the plotting, the secretiveness, the centrality of human relationships instead of politics, and that wily female desperation bringing tragedy in its wake.

But at the time the important thing was that Babooshka’s story, with its dancey, faintly eastern-sounding music and the emotional subtlety that toned down its cruelty, helped blow away the cobwebs from what most people then thought they knew about life on the communist side of Europe. It was proof that Russians weren’t all about Pravda and giant factories and dreary rolled-steel statistics, after all. There were real people out there, too: people who liked their wild love songs in a minor key; people with hearts, sometimes broken; people struggling to escape frustrating situations.

This made Babooshka a helpful soundtrack as the vast political changes began, very soon afterwards, on the eastern side of 1980s Europe – changes that would eventually bring the divided continent back together. The song opened millions of western hearts and minds to the possibility that the easterners they were reading about were no longer anonymous foot soldiers in a cold war that was ending, but rather flesh-and-blood folks like them”.

One of Kate Bush’s most extraordinary and impactful song, I wanted to return to the magnificent Babooshka. Over forty years since it was released, it is still being discovered by new fans. It is a magnificent and hugely compelling song that will be passed down and adored…

THROUGH the ages.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Gwenifer Raymond

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Gwenifer Raymond

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AN artist that was recently…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jinwoo

shortlisted for the Welsh music Prize (the award went to Kelly Lee Owens for Inner Song), Gwenifer Raymond is a phenomenal artist who more people should know about. I will come to that shortlisted album, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, soon. It is hard to categorise or define Raymond’s sound. There is Bluegrass at its heart, yet there are so many other elements at play. I don’t think I have recommend an artist in this feature who is instrumental. One is so captivated by Raymond’s compositions that you do not need vocals. Before coming to a review of the album and a live review of one of Gwenifer Raymond’s live shows, there are interviews that give us more details about an amazing composer and musical talent. Guitar Player spoke to her n April about her unique acoustic style:

“Raymond found a local guitar and banjo instructor well versed in the traditional genres she was developing, and with his help began developing her clawhammer technique – a right-hand approach that combines a downward thumb movement for the bass note with an upward two-fingered “claw” that sounds the melody notes on the upper strings.

“I’ve turned my right hand into an autonomous engine at this point,” she says. “I used to watch movies and play the same riff for an hour and a half.” Central to Raymond’s practice regimen were the seminal recordings of country-blues legend Mississippi John Hurt.

“You just slowly get the boom-boom of the bass notes going, and then you introduce the melody notes and eventually learn to do it on the beat, and then the offbeat, and then you put a triplet in, and you can speed it up,” she says. “Once you learn a few tricks, you’ve taught your hand to do all those things and it becomes a very offline process.”

Raymond’s clawhammer drives both her 2015 debut, Sometimes There’s Blood, and its follow-up, 2018’s You Never Were Much of a Dancer.

But on her latest release, the expansive Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square), the guitarist applies her technique and favored open tunings of G, D, and C minor to songs that embrace nerve-jangling dissonance and often completely eschew standard folk structures in favor of a more through-composed feel.

Raymond attributes this evolution to her having been commissioned to score the 1907 French silent horror short film The Red Spectre.

“I had to write a seven- or eight-minute-long track that followed the emotional arc of the movie, so it wasn’t like a verse-chorus style thing,” she says. “That just immediately sparked me into wanting to write more compositional songs with movements and more complicated musical arcs in them.”

Given that Raymond’s instrument is her primary means of connecting with her audience, her close attention to tone is not surprising. To the guitarist, communicating with sound is often more effective than doing so with words.

“Talking is hard, as I often discover during interviews,” she says. “In conversation, if you’re trying to get something across but you can’t quite find the words for it, you just make a noise and a gesture. In many ways, that’s what instrumental music does. It’s creating the mood of a concept in a non-representative way.

“And it can do that because the words might not even really exist. Or maybe they exist, but not in the language that you speak, because there are plenty of words in different languages that don’t exist in others. So it’s the nonverbal grunting that you do when you can’t quite get an idea across. But prettier”.

Released in November 2020, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain is a different sound and vibe compared to her debut. As she explained in this interview, she moved away from the Blues and Folk style to writing more composed songs that are more personal too:

“What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?

My latest release was my second album, entitled Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, which came out in November of last year. Like my first album it was a collection of guitar instrumentals in the ‘primitive’ style. I feel as though this album is leaning more into the left-field than the first – the songs are longer and more ‘compositional’ for lack of a better word, rather than deriving so heavily from the folk and blues traditions. In many ways I think it’s perhaps a more personal album, more reflective of my own upbringing, rather than of the records on my shelves – turning it into something more like ‘Welsh Primitive’.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?

I’m quite a slow writer, it takes me a long time to fully compose and realise a piece of music. I think this album is more complex than the first; the song structures are more evolving and less based in a traditional verse-chorus structure. I guess I was more ambitious in what I wanted to create, and harsher with myself about what I was writing as I was writing it. Thus, my song writing process – already pretty slow – has gotten even slower. Of course, I think is was absolutely worth the effort.

PHOTO CREDIT: Antonio Olmos/The Observer 

What do enjoy most about producing your own material?

I produced it myself, although there’s obviously not too much production that goes into a raw album of solo instrumental guitar. I had intended to go into the studio to record it but the pandemic hit and my plans had to change, so I ended up recording it myself in my basement flat where I live in Brighton. I’m not sure if I’d call this an effect of ‘production’ exactly, but I do think these circumstances in recording influenced the mood of the album. In my opinion solo instrumental music is innately very intimate, and so I think the effect of recording in isolation – with no other person present at that moment to listen in – has done something to intensify that sense of intimacy between recording and listener.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?

As I just mentioned, I think that listening to solo instrumental music is often innately quite an intense and intimate experience. I think the strength of this style music is also in its ability get across quite verbally inarticulable expressions of something… I personally wouldn’t want to dictate, or even suggest what a listener should take away from my music. Rather I just want them to find something – anything – in it that reflects or resonates within themselves.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?

My tracks come together slowly over time. Typically, I happen across a hook upon which I think a song could hang, and then rest of it is more a matter of discovery. It’s kind of an evolutionary process, hence why it can take so long. I wouldn’t say I write the song as opposed to figure out what it’s meant to be. The process is no more sophisticated really than playing an awful lot of guitar whilst sitting and staring out of the window.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?

I take a lot of influence from all over the shop to be honest. The most obvious sources would be your key acoustic fingerstyle guitar players: John Fahey, Blind Boy Fuller, Skip James and the like. However, there’s direct references (whether or not they’re obvious to anyone but me) on the latest album to Erik Satie and Master Wilburn Burchette. I don’t really like listing strict influences though, as I tend to be a bit of a digital crate digger and draw my influences a bit more piecemeal from various folk, avant-garde, doom metal, outsider, blues trash and garage rock sources that I stumble upon in internet excavations. That and basically anything put out by Numero Group”.

Aquarium Drunkard asked Raymond how she managed to hone and perfect her guitar style. They also wanted to know whether she hails from a musical family:

“AD: It’s a real practice playing the kind of music you play. How long did it take you to get up to speed?

Gwenifer Raymond: Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been playing guitar since I was a wee one. I’ve been playing guitar for maybe 25 years. It’s practice. You pick up different techniques. At one point I made a concerted effort so that I had a bunch of those Stefan Grossman classic blues tab books, with John Hurt thumb techniques, which I’d seen my teacher doing. So, I started trying to do that on my own, in my own style of playing.

AD: Did you come from a musical family?

Gwenifer Raymond: No. Well, sort of. Neither of my parents are musicians, but they’re both big music fans. We had lots of music around the house. On my mother’s side of the family, some of them were quite musical. Most of them I never met. But my uncles were all adept players. And certainly, my brothers are both musicians.

AD: What can you tell me about Welsh music and how it plays into your work? I don’t know much about it or how it’s distinct from Irish or Scottish or English folk music. What can you tell me about it?

Gwenifer Raymond: Yeah, I don’t listen to too much Welsh folk, beyond, obviously hymns and stuff when I was at school. I have listened to some, though, and it’s almost like a cross between Scottish and Irish. It’s kind of in that category. I think it was more the landscape of Wales with lots of open space and big dark mountains. It was that kind of imagery that plays in my head to the music, rather than folk music”.

I am going to bring in a review for the extraordinary Strange Light Over Garth Mountain. The Guardian were suitably impressed with the Welsh-born, Brighton-based artist’s second album:

“The Garth Mountain marks the south-east of the Welsh mining valleys and the north-west of Cardiff, bronze age burial mounds pocking its peak in strange, crumpled formations. It loomed behind Gwenifer Raymond’s house when she grew up, as the guitarist moved from explorations of punk towards folk, traditional music, the blues and beyond.

Raymond’s 2018 debut, You Never Were Much of a Dancer, set alight the ghost of American primitive pioneer John Fahey (one track was a requiem for him, echoing his own for Mississippi John Hurt). Her fingers tangled around her guitar strings in thrilling, intricate patterns. This time, on an album richly influenced by her birth country, she tries to invent a new style: Welsh primitive, she calls it, infused with folk horror, conjuring up coal trains steaming along the foot of her garden and tall, eerie trees, black against the grey sky.

Those expecting Welsh folk styles will be disappointed. Strange Lights’ closest cousin from Cymru is probably Rhodri Davies’ Telyn Rawn album from earlier this year, where his medieval harp’s horsehair strings seemed to seethe and bleed. Raymond’s references are more about mood, beginning with Incantation’s slow, single drum and shaken bells, then a simple, stark guitar line that weaves a menacing spell. Hell for Certain ups the pace, becoming thick, dense and tangled like a Davy Graham raga. Worn Out Blues bends out its sad melody with sighs of both melancholia and terror.

Gwaed am Gwaed (Blood for Blood) most effectively conjures up an ominous landscape, however, driven by a minor-key folk ballad figure that writhes around and over itself, like a mythical creature slithering out of the shadows. Raymond’s similarly fearsome precision often feels both portentous and perfect”.

To finish off, it is worth quoting from a live review. Raymond is an artist who, on record is fabulous, yet you get something altogether different with her stage performance. The Guardian reviewed a gig of hers in Islington earlier in the year:

“This Welsh musician plays really loud and really fast too, like a vengeful bluegrass musician conjuring up roiling fury, then dropping into languorous eddies, switching between paces with pin-sharp precision. Guitar playing should never be mere gymnastics – “shredding” for shredding’s sake – but Raymond combines awe-inducing technique with grace, depth and emotion.

Hell for Certain, a track from her 2020 album Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain – played in its entirety tonight – sounds even faster and more muscular than its recorded version. (In the video, shot by her mother, Raymond looks wryly uncomfortable in a lace dress, creepy Victoriana and taxidermy arrayed around her.) If anyone made bloody, dramatic Welsh westerns, her instrumentals would be the natural soundtrack. Another 2020 track, Gwaed am Gwaed, translates as “blood for blood”.

The venue’s usual capacity is nearly 900; social distancing has reduced it to 150 tonight. Those of us in the stalls are siloed into pods of two seats with a little table for drinks. But even with smaller numbers, the combination of space and enthusiastic warm bodies means that Raymond’s playing echoes around the space like a living thing, more three-dimensional and organic than its recorded version. Ah, gigs: this is my first one since March 2020.

The folk roots of Raymond’s music lie in faraway Appalachia; the acoustic blues of the American south are well represented too. Her specific field of solo guitar is known as “American primitive” – almost everyone involved now agrees that is a highly problematic name, because it both appropriates and patronises the work of its black inspirations, but a new one hasn’t been minted yet. John Fahey (1939–2001), the father of the genre, coined it, and a steady trickle of acolytes have since taken up this mesmeric, meditative form that, with its open tunings and air of mystery, has as much in common with Indian ragas and drone-based music as it does Anglo-US fingerpicking.

American primitive long remained the preserve of white guys. Great as many of them have been (the late Jack Rose in particular), that is now changing. A recent New York Times article profiled a series of non-white, non-male and non-binary solo guitar players breaking the mould; Raymond is one of the rising talents quoted. “The music can only get more interesting,” she says”.

Go and check out and follow Gwenifer Raymond. She is an award-nominated, hugely acclaimed young artist whose music is so vivid and stunning. Even if you are not a fan of Folk or Bluegrass, that will not be a problem. There is something deeper and different when it comes to an album like Strange Light Over Garth Mountain. If you have not listened to that album, you will definitely want to…

INVESTIGATE it now.

____________

Follow Gwenifer Raymond

Official:

https://gweniferraymond.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/gweniferraymond/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/gweniferraymond/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/gweniferraymondmusic/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2iGJNH6ILc-C__MK4Ayhbg

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2scavaz2jGMWRFULHoe5je?si=NGJ_zXAYShKm3qLe5hhZOw

FEATURE: Revisiting… Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

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IN a feature that looks back…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Hollie Fernando

at great albums from the past few years, I wanted to spend some time with Nilüfer Yanya’s debut album, Miss Universe. With her second album, Painless, due next year, it is a good moment to highlight her incredible debut. Yanya grew up in Chelsea, London listening to Turkish and Classical music playing at home. By the age of twelve, she graduated to the guitar. I would advise people to go and buy Miss Universe, as it is an extraordinary album from a true original:

“At 18, Nilüfer – who is of Turkish - Irish - Bajan heritage – uploaded a few demo s to SoundCloud. Though she’s preternaturally shy, her music – which uniquely blends elements of soul and jazz into intimate pop songs with electronic flourishes and a newly expressed grungy guitar sound – isn’t. And it didn’t take long for it to catch people’s attention. She signed with independent New York label ATO, following three EPs on esteemed london indie label Blue Flowers, and earned a place on the BBC Sound of 2018 longlist. She also supported the likes of The xx, Interpol, Broken Social Scene and Mitski on tour. Now, Nilüfer releases her debut album, Miss Universe. Though she recorded much of it in the same remote Cornwall studio she used to jam in as a much younger person, it is bigger and more ambitious than anything she has done before. Angels, with its muted, harmonic riffs, channels ideas “of paranoid thoughts and anxiety” – a theme that runs through the album, not least in its conceptual spoken word interludes which emanate from a fictional health management company WWAY HEALT H TM. “You sign up, and you pay a fee,” explains Nilüfer of the automated messages, which are littered through the album and are narrated by the titular Miss Universe. “They sort out all of your dietary requirements, and then they move onto medication, and then maybe you can get a better organ or something... and then suddenly it starts to get a bit weird. You're giving them more of you and to what end?”.

Released on 22nd March, 2019, Miss Universe is one of the best albums of that year. It is a surprise that you do not hear many of the tracks played. Yanya is a terrific songwriter. We are preparing for her second album. She did put out in the E.P., Feeling Lucky?, last year. Her quality and consistency is impressive indeed! Scooping universal acclaim, Miss Universe is an album that cannot be ignored or played now and then. In their review, CLASH noted the following:

“Singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya has come a long way since she started uploading tracks to Soundcloud five years ago. The Londoner has been writing music in her head since she was six, and writing on the guitar since 12, and now at 23 she continues to work with a self-assured autonomy, refusing to let hype or pressure tip her balance. This inner confidence forms the backbone of her debut album: a work tightly-cluttered with ambition and a knack for elevated hooks, a showcase for multi-disciplinary song writing.

An enduring, overriding anxiety about modern life also runs through the record, projecting a dystopian, technological paranoia, but – weirdly – ‘Miss Universe’ is not sinister. In fact, a large chunk of its creative genius is rooted Yanya’s authentic, very human, DIY ethics and attitude, in her vivacious presence and mesmeric exuberance.

Part of this exuberance is an infectious, chirpy passion for pop music. But it’s not pop of the formulaic, fabricated, conveyor belt type; no, it is innovative and striking pop euphoria. The vibrant, pulsing opener ‘In Your Head’ plays with elements of alt-rock and grunge, while eerie, automated messages from WWayHealth – an imagined health management company – cleverly thread core themes through a musically diverse project.

Yanya brings unexpected sonic vibes on ‘Melt’, with its cacophony of brass instruments – inspired by a festival experience – and her Sade-like vocals and jazzy electro-pop atmospherics of ‘Baby Blue’ work intrinsic wonders. On a different end of the emotional spectrum, the soothing facets of ‘Safety Net’ explores the importance of just being, and accepting, oneself, while with concluding track ‘Heavyweight Champion of the Year’ Yanya addresses reaching inner limits, her own ‘metaphorical bar’.

The singer-songwriter has created an astoundingly original piece of work; every track sends shivers down the spine, but hitting different vertebrae - sometimes the impact is measured and controlled, others it’s shocking and bold.  Using her otherworldly, but very human, backdrop Yanya tackles the modern collective experience from an individual perspective - ‘Miss Universe’ is an intimate record full of personal fears and emotions, but these are of wider, universal relevance. They should resonate with us all”.

I like the fact Yanya did not use material from previous E.P.s for her debut. Instead, we get something fresh. Miss Universe is interspersed with interludes featuring messages from something called WWAY HEALTH. These skits and messages are voiced by Yanya. Consisting of short monologues in the form of automated phone messages that intimate at an alienating healthcare bureaucracy. In a way, it is almost like a Hip-Hop album (where interludes are more common). The Guardian picked up on this in their review:

“As with the skits on hip-hop albums, you do wonder how often you’ll want to revisit the interstitial tracks once you have got her point about how all this plays on, and increases, anxiety. Indeed, you don’t really need them to grasp it. No matter how big the choruses get, the music carries a sense of disquiet: you’re never far from, as one track puts it, Monsters Under the Bed. If Heavyweight Champion of the World sounds like a hit single, it’s a troubled one. Even before you get to the lyric, “I’m tired from all these dreams, lack of sleep, I’m still wired”, you notice the way the staccato vocal pulls fretfully at the melody and the nervy urgency with which Yanya hits the strings of her guitar.

Similarly, while you can easily imagine In Your Head becoming an indie disco staple, its depiction of a relationship collapsing is filled with apprehension and vain attempts at second-guessing. The drums boom, the guitar riffs are punchy and appealing, but there’s something wrong with the sound: it lurches when it should flow, feeling as if it’s about to fall to pieces. So does Melt, which comes decorated with the aforementioned smooth 80s saxophones. Its initial calm, small-hours atmosphere gradually unravels and the lyrics reveal themselves to be about the point in an evening where hedonistic indulgence slips into worryingly nihilistic abandon. The result sounds not unlike Arthur Russell’s attempts to make pop music, so wildly off-kilter they went unreleased until years after his death.

It all feels very frayed and personal, as do the intriguing musical juxtapositions. When a guitar that seems to have escaped from an early 2000s R&B track constructed along the lines of Destiny’s Child’s Jumpin’ Jumpin’ unexpectedly appears in the middle of Paralysed, or Heat Rises manages to simultaneously recall the Strokes’ Hard to Explain and Kelis’s collaboration with Andre 3000, Millionaire, it never feels like an artist being clever for the sake of it. It’s more like listening to someone let the music that seeped into them in their teens gush out, albeit in a profoundly altered state. Altered enough, in fact, that it occasionally leaves you scratching your head. You listen to the rhythm track of Paradise – made up of clicks and yelps, augmented by the scrape of Yanya’s fingers down her guitar strings and wonder how she arrived at it. The answer suggested by the rest of her debut album is that she’s a true original”.

If you are not aware of the album and Nilüfer Yanya, then go and check out Miss Universe. It is a great album that marked the (full-length) arrival of one of Britain’s best young artists. The London-based songwriter is someone I have been a fan of for a while. Her debut saw her as Miss Universe. On her second album, we could see her…

GOING stratospheric.

FEATURE: Collectables, Must-Haves…and Everything Else: Would a Kate Bush Shop Succeed and Prove Popular?

FEATURE:

 

 

Collectables, Must-Haves…and Everything Else

IMAGE CREDIT: Anthony Freeman  

Would a Kate Bush Shop Succeed and Prove Popular?

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I have sort of pitched this…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

when I talked about a Kate Bush pop-up shop. That was earlier in the year. There was a Bush pop-up shop that moved online that was erected and housed to promote her Remastered albums in 2018. It was a great endeavour that proved hugely popular. I think that, as she is growing in popularity, there is too much choice online; many people might miss out on something great. What I was thinking, as opposed to the idea I floated last year, having a permanent residence where there would be this shop entirely for her merchandise and records. There are bands and artists who do have shop space dedicated to them. I know ABBA are a group who have that honour. It would not need to be a big space. There are her studio albums and different versions of her albums. For instance, depending on which country they were released in, you get different covers. Her albums are available on vinyl, C.D. and cassette. There are boxsets and books; there are magazines about her, in addition to a range of different merchandise. Whether it could survive donating a lot of the profits to charity, I am not too sure. The 2018 pop-up raised money for Crisis. There was great merchandise, some stuff from her Before the Dawn residency (programmes, I think), and a whole host of goodies.

 IN THIS PHOTO: An item on sale at the Kate Bush pop-up shop that appeared in London in 2018

I think that non-Kate Bush fans would love to spend some time in a shop that is all about her. Not to repeat myself too much, but there could be clothing and general apparel. A whole section with records. These would be vinyl, cassette and C.D. versions of her studio albums, E.P.s and anything else. There are also plenty of books about Bush that have come onto the market the past decade or so. Away from the more accessible and ‘conventional’ items, there are rarities and signed items you can get from auction sites that could be brought in-shop. Costing more, there are plenty of fans that would pay for the privilege. In terms of anything else in the shop, I guess having a screen or screens dotted around could play her interviews and music videos. I have a lot of Kate Bush produce in terms of the albums and some books, though there are things that are on my wish-list that would be awesome to have access to right away. I like websites where you can bid for items. Even so, it can get very expensive and take a while for the goods to arrive (if you are a successful bidder). I know it would be hard to replenish a section of a shop with rarities. You might get different items and signed goods that come in every month. The more fixed stock like books and albums could easily be restocked and kept topped up.

I have said before, when thinking of locations, how Covent Garden seems to be ideal. It is probably less expensive than other parts of London rent-wise, and Bush herself spent time there when training in dance. I associate Covent Garden with Bush taking lessons at the Dance Centre  before her debut album came out. As I wrote recently, Bush did some charity work as a retail assistant in Covent Garden in 1988. I think that it would be able to pull a lot of people in. There are so many cool bits of merchandise and fan-made goods that could be brought to the wider public. Not that it would take business away from these sites. Instead, they would be able to sell goods like a market stall. Information about that website that people could visit afterwards. I look online and can see how many articles are published about Bush. She seems to grow in stature and popularity by the year! Another reason for having a shop in that part of London is that there are not that many record shops in the centre of town. It is quite difficult to get Kate Bush records on the high street in most parts of London. In a wider sense, it is a chance to celebrate and mark the incredible influence and impact of one of the music world’s true treasures. It would not just be me who would get excited about a all-under-one-roof trove for Kate Bush gold. I think that a shop could do…

REALLY well.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Berlin – Take My Breath Away

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Berlin – Take My Breath Away

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I love a good ‘80s power ballad…

and the one I am featuring in Groovelines is a classic! written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock for the 1986 film Top Gun, Take My Breath Away was performed (epically) by the New Wave band, Berlin. No mere one-hit wonder, the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1986. It is one of those tracks that everyone knows and has heard. Many might not be aware of the story behind the classic. There are a couple of articles that look at how the song was written and what it was like for Berlin recording it. One of the biggest number one tracks of the 1980s, I think that Take My Breath Away still sounds impactful and emotive. It may have dated a bit, though you can put the track on and feel lifted by it. Stereogum put great number ones under the microscope. They looked about – among other things – how Giorgio Moroder became involved, in addition to how the song differs from some of the more overwrought and forgettable film songs of the 1980s:

“By the time he made “Take My Breath Away,” Moroder had been working in movies for nearly a decade, and he’d effectively left behind the Euro-disco sound that he’d revolutionized with his old collaborator Donna Summer. Moroder had won two Oscars, and he’d co-written and produced #1 hits for two different Bruckheimer-produced films: Blondie’s “Call Me,” from American Gigolo, and Irene Cara’s “Flashdance… What A Feeling,” from Flashdance. Moroder had also produced the Scarface soundtrack, re-scored the silent sci-fi classic Metropolis, and worked with David Bowie on “Cat People (Putting Out The Fire).” He’d recorded an album with the Human League frontman Philip Oakey. He’d made “The NeverEnding Story,” the theme song from the film of the same title, with the Kajagoogoo leader Limahl, and I will love that song for as long as I draw breath on this planet. (“The NeverEnding Story” peaked at #17.) The man was doing well for himself.

The Los Angeles synthpop group Berlin, singer Terri Nunn in particular, were huge admirers of Moroder. Berlin had formed in 1978, when synthpop was still an extremely fringe concern in America. They loved European electronic groups like Kraftwerk; Nunn later told The Guardian, “The band name was our attempt to make people think we were German.” Nunn, a Los Angeles teenager, joined Berlin in 1979, after they’d already been through a couple of singers. (The #1 single in America on the week of Nunn’s birth was Gary U.S. Bonds’ “Quarter To Three.”) Nunn was a part-time actress who’d auditioned for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars when she was 15. Her audition, with Harrison Ford, is still online. It’s pretty funny! She would not have been a very good Princess Leia!

At least on paper, “Take My Breath Away” does all the things that a big-movie love ballad is supposed to do. Whitlock’s lyrics are absolute romantic gibberish: “Watching every motion in my foolish lover’s game/ On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame.” The music is slow and stately, and there’s a late-song key change to pound all the emotions home. But rather than string-soaked grandeur, “Take My Breath Away” keeps things chilly and synthetic. It floats there with an eerie sort of stillness — pretty, but airless.

It’s instructive to compare “Take My Breath Away” to Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ “Up Where We Belong,” another love ballad from a blockbuster movie about a hotshot military recruit who falls in love at training camp. “Up Where We Belong” is pure early-’80s schlock, full of tinkly pianos and melodramatic strings. Cocker and Warnes sing it like they’re howling at the heavens. Moroder’s approach on “Take My Breath Away” couldn’t be more different. He pulls everything back, turning the song into a dreamily morose sigh. And in Terri Nunn, he found the right singer to deliver that sigh.

The Top Gun soundtrack, like the movie, was a huge hit, even though most of it is forgettable garbage from bands like Cheap Trick and the Miami Sound Machine. (After “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away” faded from the charts, Loverboy made it to #12 with their own garbage-ass Top Gun ballad “Heaven In Your Eyes.”) The next year, Moroder and Whitlock won the Best Original Song Oscar for “Take My Breath Away,” beating out Peter Cetera’s “Glory Of Love” and the An American Tail banger “Somewhere Out There” in the process. (“Somewhere Out There,” as performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, peaked at #2. Their version is an 8, though the version that Fievel sings in the movie would probably be a 10.) Moroder accepted his third Oscar from Bernadette Peters, and he seemed overcome. “This I really like,” he said. Later on, Moroder said that “Take My Breath Away” was his favorite song that he’d made — a crazy thing to hear from the man partially responsible for “I Feel Love”.

My favourite aspect of Take My Breath Away is the vocal performance from Terri Nunn. She brings so much electricity and passion to the words! In November last year, The Guardian interviewed her and Giorgio Moroder about the creation of Take My Breath Away:

“Terri Nunn, singer

Before I was in Berlin I auditioned for the part of Princes Leia in Star Wars. I was 15 but looked 12. Harrison Ford was over 30 but looked 19 or 20. We sat in deckchairs to say our lines. George Lucas, bless him, sent me a letter thanking me and saying: “We chose Carrie Fisher, but we’d like to help you.” He introduced me to Steven Spielberg and all these guys. I was offered the part of Lucy Ewing in Dallas, but the seven-year contract scared me because I really wanted to do music. My mother told me to go with my heart, but my agent was so annoyed with me for turning down Dallas that he dropped me. A year later, I met John Crawford [bass/vocals] and joined Berlin.

People laughed at us at first because power-pop or arena rock were popular and we were into electronic music – Kraftwerk and Ultravox. The band name was our attempt to make people think we were German.

We loved what Giorgio Moroder was doing and begged to work with him, but he was huge: he had worked with David Bowie, Donna Summer, Blondie and on Flashdance. We could eventually afford him for just one song, No More Words. While we were working with him, he got the contract for Top Gun and wrote Take My Breath Away. He’d tried other singers on it but the film’s producers had turned them all down, so Giorgio suggested us. We hadn’t had big hits, but he could be very convincing and told them: “Oh, they’ll be huge.”

We went into Giorgio’s vast studio complex in North Hollywood, where he was doing three or four projects simultaneously with an assistant producer in every room. He would blow in and say: “I don’t like the horns. Take them out. We’ll do more later. OK, bye.” Then he’d return later: “Oh I love it! Do more harmonies!”

He added horns and guitars and made everything more lush. He kept bringing me back to simplify the vocal, saying: “People need to want to sing along.” In acting, I’d learned a lot about channelling emotion. I was alone. I’d been so busy with the band I’d not had a relationship for four years. So I sang it from a feeling of sadness and longing, and maybe that’s what resonated. At first, nothing happened and our manager said: “Terri, if this goes Top 10, I’ll get a mohawk.” But the record company kept pushing and it went to No 1 around the world, so MTV came and filmed our manager getting a mohawk”.

Having turned thirty-five earlier in the year, Berlin’s sweeping and anthemic Take My Breath Away is a song that is the highlight from Top Gun’s soundtrack. With lyrics from Tom Whitlock and production/composition from Giorgio Moroder, it has been good exploring the history and story of one of the biggest songs from the 1980s. After all of these years, Take My Breath Away remains…

A singalong classic.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

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BECAUSE the American Rock band…

Spoon are releasing the new album, Lucifer on the Sofa, next year, I wanted to look back at one of their classic albums for Vinyl Corner. Released in 2002, Kill the Moonlight is quite a stark and bleak listen. It has plenty of beauty to be found. A change of sound for Spoon, it features instruments like tambourines and pianos in a more stripped production. I would urge people to get it on vinyl. As I do with all albums I include, I want to showcase a couple of reviews. Whereas 2001’s Girls Can’t Tell was a departure from 1998’s A Series of Sneaks, fans were offered something new on Kill the Moonlight. I have heard Spoon’s music before, though I did not hear Kill the Moonlight until fairly recently. It is an album that one should grab on vinyl and experience something that was hugely acclaimed upon its release. In their review of one of 2002’s best albums, this is what AllMusic had to say:

“Coming just a year-and-a-half after their triumphant return Girls Can Tell, Kill the Moonlight isn't so much a step backward as a step sideways, almost like a breather after the emotional and musical intensity of their previous album. It isn't surprising, really, that the group would choose to follow such a cathartic album as Girls Can Tell with a collection of tougher, leaner, and meaner songs like "All the Pretty Girls Go to the City," which sounds like the inverse of Girls' "Everything Hits at Once"; "The Way We Get By," a prime example of Spoon's smart, nervy rock; or the spare, spooky pop of "Paper Tiger" and "Someone Something."

It is somewhat surprising, however, that Spoon managed to pare down their sound even more on Kill the Moonlight -- tracks such as "Small Stakes" and "Something to Look Forward To" are so stripped-down and sculpted that they're practically aerodynamic; the only problem is that they don't always take off from there. Still, even the album's sparest moments feature Spoon's much-heralded knack with catchy melodies and hooks, even if songs such as "Don't Let It Get You Down" would be even more memorable with a slightly more fleshed-out approach. Hints of this appear on the songs with unique production twists, such as "Stay Don't Go," which sports a human beatbox rhythm; on the distant backing vocals and baritone saxes of "You Gotta Feel It"; and on the album-closer, "Vittorio E.," an undulating, vaguely psychedelic ballad that finally gives the band's playing and songwriting the full treatment they deserve. Though the album's brittle immediacy is far from a disappointment, and the quick turnaround between Kill the Moonlight and their previous one is a treat for Spoon fans, one can't help but notice that this album just isn't as revelatory as Girls Can Tell. But even if the artistic course Spoon seems to be plotting is two steps forward, one step back, it's more than rewarding enough to enjoy every stop on the journey”.

With the incredible vocals of Britt Daniel giving every song such importance and weight, I have been listening back to Kill the Moonlight quite a bit. If you have not heard the album before, it is a lot more rewarding than it is challenging. I feel reviews of Kill the Moonlight give you a good impression of what makes the album so stunning and celebrated. Many critics have placed it in their list of the best albums of the ‘00s. This is Pitchfork’s take on Kill the Moonlight:

“But any hack band can create space, right? Maybe. But using it is the tricky part. Like some of the best minimalists in music, Spoon use the null and void to create tension which bolsters and sets apart every nuance of the music-- every handclap, every reverberating crash, every beep from the synthesizer. "Paper Tiger," in particular, effortlessly floats into of the realm of the hyper-real; there's nearly more silence than music. Spoon has always struck me as a band that, no matter how good the rest of their album was, could always be relied upon to produce at least one or two songs every album that would make my jaw drop ("Car Radio," "Everything Hits at Once," "Lines in the Suit"). And while Moonlight has far more than its fair share of stunners, "Paper Tiger" blows them all away. Daniel distantly croon-growls, "I'll never hold you back/ And I won't force my will/ 'I will no longer do the Devil's wishes'/ Somethin' I read on a dollar bill," over reverse-playback beats, solitary piano chords, and drumsticks; nothing else. It's an effect of singular elegance and power.

The rest of the album is largely more upbeat, fortunately, or it could have slipped into a fugue. A little of the guitar braggadocio that netted the band so many past comparisons to the Pixies, and older acts like Wire, is showcased on "Jonathon Fisk." The riffs hit hard and fast, and some of the horns Bowie once used on Hunky Dory drop by to lighten things up. Later, the rock piano stylings of Jerry Lee Lewis could shed a tear for catapulting the bittersweet "Someone Something" into the "best of" section of Spoon's catalog. Bright-eyed optimism and the faintest hint of the uncertainty of expectation are conveyed through the staccato piano, and the vocals build and carry it off to a beautiful conclusion. Also of note: "Something to Look Forward To" may be the best fusion of older and newer Spoon to date, and "Stay Don't Go" will likely be your only chance to experience a sample of Britt beat-boxing. Truly surreal.

Kill the Moonlight is a hailstorm of complex emotional underpinnings; sometimes vibrant, sometimes morose, but usually in a frighteningly anxious limbo. "Vittorio E" closes shop and turns eyes toward the future with a 3\xBD-minute synopsis of the album's emotional heft. Choir-like harmonies fade in from the depths behind the main vocal, and a simple, sweet piano refrain lifts it away from any of the sadness or trouble left behind it. It never looks back.

Indeed, Spoon's latest is their magnum opus to date; it takes a scalpel to the highlight reel of their career, cutting and pasting a 35-minute tour de force that ends too soon. And yet, despite all the elements Spoon has toyed with over the years, it doesn't sound distinctly like any of them. In fact, this all feels like a decidedly different Spoon, like the real start of the next phase for which the merely likable Girls Can Tell was only a bridge. So be prepared. The difference is in the distance”.

I will end here. Containing twelve tracks that all seem different, vital and utterly engrossing, Kill the Moonlight is an album that is best appreciated on vinyl. With Lucifer on the Sofa due next year, it was a good time to look back at their fourth L.P. Though some fans might disagree, I think that Kill the Moonlight is…

THEIR best album to date.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s How to Be Invisible at Three: The Songs with the Best Lyrics on Nine of Her Studio Albums

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s How to Be Invisible at Three

The Songs with the Best Lyrics on Nine of Her Studio Albums

___________

I wanted to mark the anniversary…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during filming for The Line, The Cross and the Curve in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

of Kate Bush’s How to Be Invisible. On Monday (6th December), her first lyrics book turns three. For any new convert or big Kate Bush fan, I think that the book is a great gift idea. I would recommend people go and buy it:

“A landmark publishing event, How to be Invisible is the first ever published collection of Bush’s lyrics, selected by the artist and brought together in a beautiful clothbound gift edition.

Ivor Novello winner Kate Bush has long forged her love of literature with music. From Emily Brontë through to James Joyce, Bush has consistently referenced our literary heritage, combined with her own profound understanding of language and musical form.

How to Be Invisible: Selected Lyrics draws from her superlative, 40-year career in music. Chosen and arranged by Kate Bush herself, this very special, cloth-bound volume will be the first published collection of her work.

Accompanying the collection is an expansive introduction from Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell. ‘For millions around the world Kate is way more than another singer-songwriter: she is a creator of musical companions that travel with you through life,’ he said. ‘One paradox about her is that while her lyrics are avowedly idiosyncratic, those same lyrics evoke emotions and sensations that feel universal”.

To mark three years since the release of Kate Bush’s great lyrics book, I wanted to highlight a song from each of her nine studio albums (I am not including 2011’s Director’s Cut) that boasts especially strong lyrics. Of course, one should not be so reductive but, to demonstrate how unique and brilliant Kate Bush is as a lyricist (in addition to her immense compositional, production and vocal chops!), there is always that golden song on each L.P. that blows you away with its imagery – choosing it is hard, yet it allows me opportunity to spotlight her special poetry. Another great book that illustrates Bush’s words and songs is Finding Kate. It is a magnificent book from Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert that sets some of Bush’s best lines and greatest lyrics to these beautiful illustrations. The song selections are great, and we get a mix of the better-known songs and the deeper cuts that offer up their brilliance in the book. A happy third anniversary to Kate Bush’s How to Be Invisible. A magnificent, illuminating, striking, wonderful and quote-worthy book, it is one that should be…

IN every Kate Bush fan’s home for Christmas.

__________________

The Kick Inside – The Man with the Child in His Eyes

Album Release Date: 17th February, 1978

U.K. Single Release Date: 26th May, 1978

Producer: Andrew Powell

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Wuthering Heights

The Lyrics:

“("He's here! He's here!

He's here! He's here!")

I hear him, before I go to sleep

And focus on the day that's been.

I realize he's there,

When I turn the light off and turn over.

Nobody knows about my man.

They think he's lost on some horizon.

And suddenly I find myself

Listening to a man I've never known before,

Telling me about the sea,

All his love, 'til eternity.

Ooh, he's here again,

The man with the child in his eyes.

Ooh, he's here again,

The man with the child in his eyes.

He's very understanding,

And he's so aware of all my situations.

And when I stay up late,

He's always waiting, but I feel him hesitate.

Oh, I'm so worried about my love.

They say, "No, no, it won't last forever."

And here I am again, my girl,

Wondering what on Earth I'm doing here.

Maybe he doesn't love me.

I just took a trip on my love for him.

Ooh, he's here again,

The man with the child in his eyes.

Ooh, he's here again,

The man with the child in his eyes”

Lionheart – Symphony in Blue

Album Release Date: 13th November, 1978

Producer: Andrew Powell (assisted by Kate Bush)

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Wow

The Lyrics:

“I spent a lot of my time looking at blue,

The color of my room and my mood:

Blue on the walls, blue out of my mouth;

The sort of blue between clouds, when the sun comes out,

The sort of blue in those eyes you get hung up about.

When that feeling of meaninglessness sets in,

Go blowing my mind on God:

The light in the dark, with the neon arms,

The meek He seeks, the beast He calms,

The head of the good soul department.

I see myself suddenly

On the piano, as a melody.

My terrible fear of dying

No longer plays with me,

for now I know that I'm needed

For the symphony.

I associate love with red,

The colour of my heart when she's dead;

Red in my mind when the jealousy flies,

Red in my eyes from emotional ties,

Manipulation, the danger signs.

The more I think about sex, the better it gets.

Here we have a purpose in life:

Good for the blood circulation,

Good for releasing the tension,

The root of our reincarnations.

I see myself suddenly

On the piano, as a melody.

My terrible fear of dying

No longer plays with me,

for now I know that I'm needed

For the symphony.

I spent a lot of my time looking at blue

No wonder that I blue it!”

Never for Ever – The Wedding List

Album Release Date: 7th September, 1980

Producers: Kate Bush/Jon Kelly

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Breathing

The Lyrics:

“No, I'll never give the hunt up

And I won't muck it up

Somehow this is it, I knew

Maybe fate wants you dead, too

We've come together in the very same room

And I'm coming for you

Do you think I'd ever let you

Get away with it, huh?

He swooned in warm maroon

There's gas in your barrel, and I'm flooded with Doom

You've made a wake of our honeymoon

And I'm coming for you"

"All of the headlines said 'Passion Crime"

'Newly weds Groom Shot Dead

'Mystery Man.' God help the bride

She's a widow, all in red

With his red still wet. She said--"

I'll put him on the wedding list

I'll put him on the wedding list

I'll get him and I will not miss

Now, as I'm coming for you

All I see is Rudi

I die with him, again and again

And I'll feel good in my revenge

I'm gonna fill your head with lead

And I'm coming for you

And when it's all over you'll roll over

The butt of my gun:

One in your belly, and one for Rudi

You got what you gave by the heel of my bootie

Bang-bang--Out! like an old cherootie

I'm coming for you

"All of the headlines said 'Passion Crime:

'Newly weds Groom Shot Dead

'Mystery Man.' God help the bride

She's a widow, all in red

With his red still wet. She said--"

She sure got him on the wedding list

I'll got him on the wedding list

I'll got him and I will not miss

I'll put him on the wedding list

"And after she shot the guy

She committed suicide

I'm coming, Rudi

"And later, when they analysed

They found a little one inside.

"It must have been Rudi's child"

I shot, I shot, I shot him honey

"Never mind, she got the guy"

He hit the ground, Rudi

"An eye for an eye"

Ashes to ashes...

"Eye for an eye"

I hit him, hit him

Rudi!, Rudi

I'm coming coming coming honey

"Eye for an eye"

Rudi”

The Dreaming – Houdini

Album Release Date: 13th September, 1982

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Pull Out the Pin

The Lyrics:

“I wait at the table,

And hold hands with weeping strangers

Wait for you to join the group

The tambourine jingle-jangles

The medium roams and rambles

Not taken in, I break the circle

I want this man

To go away now

With a kiss

I'd pass the key

And feel your tongue

Teasing and receiving.

With your spit

Still on my lip

You hit the water

Him and I in the room

To prove you are with us too

He's using code that only you and I know

This is no trick of his

This is your magic

I'd catch the cues

Watching you

Hoping you'd do something wrong

Everybody thinks you'll never make it

But every time you escape

'Rosabel believe,

Not even eternity

Can hold Houdini!'

"Rosabel, believe!"

Through the glass

I'd watch you breathe

("Not even eternity")

Bound and drowned

And paler than you've ever been

("will hold Houdini!")

With your life

The only thing in my mind

We pull you from the water

You ("Hou-di-ni")

And I and Rosabel believe”

Hounds of Love - And Dream of Sheep

Album Release Date: 16th September, 1985

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Cloudbusting

The Lyrics:

“Little light shining

Little light will guide them to me

My face is all lit up

My face is all lit up

If they find me racing white horses

They'll not take me for a buoy

Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep

Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines

Every gull a seeking craft

I can't keep my eyes open

Wish I had my radio

I'd tune into some friendly voices

Talking 'bout stupid things

I can't be left to my imagination

Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep

Ooh, their breath is warm

And they smell like sleep

And they say they take me home

Like poppies, heavy with seed

They take me deeper and deeper”

The Sensual World – This Woman’s Work

Album Release Date: 16th October, 1989

U.K. Single Release Date: 20th November, 1989

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Deeper Understanding

The Lyrics:

“Pray God you can cope.

I stand outside this woman's work,

This woman's world.

Ooh, it's hard on the man,

Now his part is over.

Now starts the craft of the father.

I know you have a little life in you yet.

I know you have a lot of strength left.

I know you have a little life in you yet.

I know you have a lot of strength left.

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.

I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things I should've said,

That I never said.

All the things we should've done,

That we never did.

All the things I should've given,

But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go,

Make it go away.

Give me these moments back.

Give them back to me.

Give me that little kiss.

Give me your hand.

(I know you have a little life in you yet.

I know you have a lot of strength left.

I know you have a little life in you yet.

I know you have a lot of strength left.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.

I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things we should've said,

That were never said.

All the things we should've done,

That we never did.

All the things that you needed from me.

All the things that you wanted for me.

All the things that I should've given,

But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go away.

Just make it go away now”

The Red Shoes – Moments of Pleasure

Album Release Date: 2nd November, 1993

U.K. Single Release Date: 15th November, 1993

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: Lily

The Lyrics:

“Some moments that I've had

Some moments of pleasure

I think about us lying

Lying on a beach somewhere

I think about us diving

Diving off a rock, into another moment

The case of George the Wipe

Oh God, I can't stop laughing

This sense of humour of mine

It isn't funny at all

Oh, but we sit up all night

Talking about it

Just being alive

It can really hurt

And these moments given

Are a gift from time

On a balcony in New York

It's just started to snow

He meets us at the lift

Like Douglas Fairbanks

Waving his walking stick

But he isn't well at all

The buildings of New York

Look just like mountains through the snow

Just being alive

It can really hurt

And these moments given

Are a gift from time

Just let us try

To give these moments back

To those we love

To those who will survive

And I can hear my mother saying

"Every old sock meets an old shoe"

Ain't that a great saying?

"Every old sock meets an old shoe"

Here come the Hills of Time

Hey there Maureen

Hey there Bubba

Dancing down the aisle of a plane

'S Murph, playing his guitar refrain

Hey there Teddy

Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road

Hey there Michael

Do you really love me?

Hey there Bill

Could you turn the lights up?”

Aerial - Mrs. Bartolozzi

Album Release Date: 7th November, 2005

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: How to Be Invisible

The Lyrics:

“I remember it was that Wednesday

Oh when it rained and it rained

They traipsed mud all over the house

It took hours and hours to scrub it out

All over the hall carpet

I took my mop and bucket

And I cleaned and I cleaned

The kitchen floor

Until it sparkled

Then I took my laundry basket

And put the linen all in it

And everything I could fit in it

And all our dirty clothes that hadn't gone into the wash

And all your shirts and jeans and things

And put them in the new washing machine

Washing machine

Washing machine

I watched them go 'round and 'round

My blouse wrapping itself in your trousers

Oh the waves are going out

My skirt floating up around my waist

As I wade out into the surf

Oh and the waves are coming in

Oh and the waves are going out

Oh and you're standing right behind me

Little fish swim between my legs

Oh and the waves are coming in

Oh and the waves are going out

Oh and the waves are coming in

Out of the corner of my eye

I think I see you standing outside

But it's just your shirt

Hanging on the washing line

Waving its arm as the wind blows by

And it looks so alive

Nice and white

Just like its climbed right out

Of my washing machine

Washing machine

Washing machine

Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy

Get that dirty shirty clean

Slooshy sloshy slooshy sloshy

Make those cuffs and collars gleam

Everything clean and shiny

Washing machine

Washing machine

Washing machine”

50 Words for Snow - Misty

Release Date: 21st November, 2011

Producer: Kate Bush

The Second-Best Song for Lyrics: 50 Words for Snow

The Lyrics:

“Roll his body.

Give him eyes.

Make him smile for me,

Give him life.

My hand is bleeding, I run back inside.

I turn off the light,

Switch on a starry night.

My window flies open.

My bedroom fills with falling snow,

Should be a dream but I'm not sleepy.

I see his snowy white face but I'm not afraid.

He lies down beside me.

So cold next to me.

I can feel him melting in my hand.

Melting, in my hand.

He won't speak to me.

His crooked mouth is full of dead leaves.

Full of dead leaves, bits of twisted branches and frozen garden,

crushed and stolen grasses from slumbering lawn.

He is dissolving, dissolving before me and dawn will come soon.

What kind of spirit is this?

Our one and only tryst.

His breath all misty,

And when I kiss his ice-cream lips

And his creamy skin,

His snowy white arms surround me.

So cold next to me.

I can feel him melting in my hand.

Melting, melting, in my hand.

Sunday morning.

I can't find him.

The sheets are soaking

And on my pillow:

Dead leaves, bits of twisted branches and frozen garden,

crushed and stolen grasses from slumbering lawn.

I can't find him - Misty

Oh please can you help me?

He must be somewhere.

Open window closing,

Oh but wait, it's still snowing.

If you're out there,

I'm coming out on the ledge.

I'm going out on the ledge”

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Eighty-Three: Brandy

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

 Part Eighty-Three: Brandy

___________

THERE are a couple of exceptions…

I am making for this A Buyer’s Guide. I may well include one of her treasured peers, Monica, in the coming weeks. I wanted to highlight Brandy, as her albums are not given as much respect and play as they deserve. She is one of the most important R&B artists of the past few decades. I normally insist that there is a minimum of eight album’s to an artist/band’s name before I consider them. Brandy has released seven. There is also not a book related to her that I could find. That said, I really feel there are albums of her that are underrated, in addition to a few real classics. I am going to recommend her four best albums, one that is underrated, in addition to her latest studio album – leaving only one of her albums that I will not cover. Before getting to the Brandy albums that are well worth investigating, I want to bring in some biography. AllMusic have us covered when it comes to the Mississippi-born icon:

“Brandy is among the few artists to achieve mainstream success as a teenager and make smooth artistic transitions across a multi-decade career. The singer and actor emerged during the post-new jack swing era like the kid sister of Mary J. Blige or TLC, specializing in pop-oriented R&B epitomized by her first two singles, "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby," both Top Ten crossover hits that made her debut, Brandy (1994), a multi-platinum smash. The title role on the popular sitcom Moesha, a chart-topping and Grammy-winning duet with Monica ("The Boy Is Mine," the longest-running number one female duet in Billboard chart history), and the multi-platinum follow-up Never Say Never (1998) all reaffirmed Brandy's broad appeal through the end of the '90s. While she could have continued to crank out safe contemporary R&B as her acting career took precedence, she made the most out of her subsequent studio time, highlighted by Full Moon (2002) and Afrodisiac (2004), progressive stylistic hybrids that earned her consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Since the mid-2000s, Brandy has recorded less often, with Human (2008) and Two Eleven (2012) maintaining her unbroken streak of Top Ten R&B/hip-hop albums. Amid constant work onscreen and on-stage, Brandy's musical output during the second half of the 2010s was limited to a handful of singles and featured appearances, but she issued her seventh album, B7 (2020), early the next decade.

Brandy Norwood was born in McComb, Mississippi, and began singing in church at age two. When she was four, her father was hired as music director at a church in Carson, California, and after a few years, she decided to pursue a professional singing career, inspired by Whitney Houston. With the help of her family, she began hunting for a record contract, and in 1992 began singing backup for the young R&B group Immature. Brandy enrolled in the Hollywood High Performing Arts Center and launched an acting career, appearing in films like Arachnophobia and Demolition Man. At the age of 14, she landed a record deal with a performance at an Atlantic Records talent showcase. Around the same time, she won a supporting role on the short-lived ABC sitcom Thea. In September 1994, Brandy released her self-titled debut album, which immediately produced Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten smashes in "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby," both of which hit number one on the R&B/hip-hop chart; "Brokenhearted" and "Best Friend" went on to smaller successes. Brandy was certified quadruple platinum within two years.

In 1996, Brandy scored her biggest hit yet with "Sittin' Up in My Room," recorded for the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack; it hit number two pop and number one R&B/hip-hop. Early that year, she also debuted on UPN as the star of Moesha, for which she took a lengthy recording hiatus. Apart from "Sittin' Up in My Room," her only real activity over the next couple of years was the Set It Off soundtrack single "Missing You," on which she teamed with Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Tamia. In 1997, she branched out by taking the title role in Disney's made-for-TV version of Cinderella, appearing alongside her idol Whitney Houston; the film's star power and integrated cast made it a significant ratings success. Finally, Brandy set about recording her second album. Never Say Never was released in June 1998, and its first single, the Monica duet "The Boy Is Mine," was a mammoth hit, topping the Hot 100 for a staggering 13 weeks. In its wake, "Top of the World" (featuring guest rapper Mase) and "Have You Ever?" were both substantial hits as well, with the latter becoming Brandy's first solo number one Hot 100 hit. Never Say Never spun off three additional singles, including the Top 20 pop hit "Almost Doesn't Count," on its way to sales of over five million copies. "The Boy Is Mine" subsequently won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Meanwhile, Brandy's acting career continued to blossom. In 1998, she landed her first major theatrical film role in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and the following year, she appeared in another TV movie, Double Trouble, with Diana Ross. She concentrated mostly on Moesha until the show was canceled in the spring of 2001. The same year, she voiced a character in the animated film Osmosis Jones. In February 2002, Brandy released her third album, Full Moon, which entered the Billboard 200 chart at number two, spun off an immediate hit in "What About Us?" -- her seventh Top Ten pop single -- and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Contemporary R&B Album. That summer, Brandy gave birth to her first child. Her pregnancy was the subject of an MTV documentary series, Brandy: Special Delivery.

The singer's fourth album, Afrodisiac, was released in June 2004. Its lead single, "Talk About Our Love," was produced by Kanye West and peaked at number 36 on the Hot 100. Although it too received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Album, Afrodisiac was Brandy's last recording for Atlantic. Signed to Epic, she returned in December 2008 with Human, an adult contemporary-leaning set that entered the Billboard 200 at number 15.

A couple years later, she starred alongside her brother and parents in the reality television series Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business, with a soundtrack of sorts following in 2011. She teamed up with Monica again in 2012 for the single "It All Belongs to Me" (which appeared on Monica's New Life), and months later issued the collaboration-heavy Two Eleven, which topped the R&B/hip-hop chart and entered the Billboard 200 at number three. The Chris Brown collaboration "Put It Down" became Brandy's tenth Top Ten R&B/hip-hop single as a headliner.

For the rest of the 2010s, Brandy devoted most of her time to acting, highlighted by roles on the series The Game, Zoe After Ever, and Star, as well as the lead role in the Broadway production of Chicago. Her limited recordings during these years included the bluesy belters "Beggin & Pleadin" (2016) and "Freedom Rings" (2019), a featured appearance on August Greene's cover of Sounds of Blackness' "Optimistic," and a duet with Daniel Caesar, "Love Again," which earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance. After she built more anticipation with the Chance the Rapper collaboration "Baby Mama," B7, her first album in eight years, arrived in 2020. The Disney Princess anthem "Starting Now" appeared the following year”.

Last year’s B7 was one of Brandy’s best albums. I hope that we get many more albums from her because, since 1994, she has been producing some of the very best music around. If you are new to Brandy’s music and brilliance, then the guide below should, I hope, point you in the…

RIGHT direction.

_________________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Brandy

Release Date: 27th September, 1994

Label: Atlantic

Producers: Keith Crouch/Kenneth Crouch/Arvel McClinton/Somethin' for the People/Damon Thomas

Standout Tracks: Baby/Best Friend/Brokenhearted

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=57718&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2yHJoGH0mIqYVAHUFKJcZ6?si=DnSIohSsSrGXtFfo7mnZzQ

Review:

“This teenage R&B singer hit the Top Ten late in 1994 with "I Wanna Be Down," a representative track from her solid debut album. Brandy knows her way around a hip-hop beat, layering tender-tough vocals over spare arrangements like a lower-key Janet Jackson or a more stripped-down Mary J. Blige. Good songs and crisp production make Brandy a moody, moving success” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: I Wanna Be Down

Never Say Never

Release Date: 9th June, 1998

Label: Atlantic

Producers: Brandy Norwood/Rodney Jerkins/Dallas Austin/David Foster/Fred Jerkins III/Brad Gilderman/Harvey Mason, Jr./Marc Nelson/Guy Roche

Standout Tracks: Angel in Disguise/Almost Doesn't Count/Never Say Never

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=57731&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Co6e9ag1gRKcWdG7xKcCi?si=MAsYX1aRQImL9h6m6Q98Jw

Review:

“Brandy is an oft-repeated name in dance music and r&b retrospectives, but rarely is her music put to the test beyond a small handful of well-known singles (and of course, countless samples). Today, I challenge you to put her music to the test. If you're saying to yourself, nice try, I'll never appreciate such a cheesy album or genre, here's what I say to you: Never Say Never.

Never Say Never captures the energy of an artist fresh off of a successful debut album, ready to let go and make music true to her heart and vision. Like many old skool r&b releases, a lopsided tracklist detracts from the record's immediacy looking back...but that's not the point! The serendipitous pairing of Brandy and producer Darkchild (aka Rodney Jerkins) resulted in a distinct atmosphere and style that made waves in the pop music industry and beyond. It doesn't lose sight of what r&b had to offer during the '90s, but is simultaneously forward-thinking, striking a balance between camp and soul that remains exceptional over twenty years later.

Darkchild would go on to be involved with most of Brandy's later albums, but the dream team wasn't able to sustain their creative momentum. As the princess of r&b gradually faded from the limelight, her voice and spirit continued to be sampled by subsequent generations, ultimately becoming a lasting ethos, and Never Say Never is an incredible display of what made Brandy so impactful. While it may not have the immediacy or consistency of other releases in r&b, patient listening reveals countless treasures. Are you up for the challenge?” – Sputnikmusic

Choice Cut: The Boy Is Mine (duet with Monica)

Afrodisiac

Release Date: 25th June, 2004

Label: Atlantic

Producers: Brandy Norwood/Warryn ‘Baby Dubb’ Campbell/Big Chuck/Theron Feemster/Walter Millsap III/Organized Noise/Timbaland/Kanye West

Standout Tracks: Who Is She 2 U/Talk About Our Love (featuring Kanye West)/Turn It Up

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=57748&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0TBkOhBNDAooz45OxNZSle?si=UnUetVaqSVeTrS9B0K202w  

Review:

“Now over a decade into her music career, Brandy is nothing if not consistent. Afrodisiac nevertheless involves a number of personal and creative changes. Since the making of 2002's Full Moon, she became a mother, split with her husband, picked up new manager Benny "The Actual Fresh Prince" Medina, and swapped out primary producer Rodney Jerkins in favor of Timbaland (not necessarily in that order). And her image has drifted away from the one she cast when she was just starting out; this hasn't transpired without some controversy. It's to be expected, but one still has to wonder what all the fuss is about. First, who doesn't change between the ages of 15 and 25? Second, the development isn't quite as drastic as Janet Jackson's jump from "Escapade" to "Throb," though there's a significant parallel there -- Brandy's provocative pose on the cover of Vibe, which hit stands just before this album, recalls Janet's cupped-breast appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1993. Though the surroundings and circumstances may be new to artist and fans alike, the effectiveness has not suffered for it: Afrodisiac is Brandy's fourth consecutive durable showing, fluffed out with a few innocuous -- if still very listenable -- filler moments, but it is stocked with a number of spectacular -- and emotionally resonant -- singles that wind up making for her most accomplished set yet. To regrettably drag Janet back into this, lead single "Talk About Our Love" is even more exceptional than another recent Kanye West-produced track, Janet's own "I Want You," and is a career highlight for both producer and vocalist. Timbaland provides 60 percent of the tracks; though he has confessed to being worn out by the process of music lately, you wouldn't know it from his inspired work. Whether or not Brandy penned the lyrics, her experiences have clearly engendered a new depth to her songs. Her voice remains a treat to hear, and on a couple tracks she wears a slightly worn scratchiness surprisingly well. Closing track "Should I Go" is about as honest and searching as anyone gets these days, and while it's also noteworthy for allowing Brandy and Timbaland to pay tribute to shared love Coldplay, it's the music industry that's being contemplated, not a romantic relationship. Whatever Brandy decides to do, consider her mark made” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Afrodisiac

Two Eleven

Release Date: 12th October, 2012

Labels: Chameleon/RCA

Producers: Bangladesh/Bink/The Bizness/Warryn Campbell/Mike City/Danja/Earl & E./Sean Garrett/Danny Morris/Jim Jonsin/Rico Love/Pierre Medor/Harmony ‘H-Money’ Samuels/Switch/Mike Will Made It/Mario Winans

Standout Tracks: No Such Thing as Too Late/Let Me Go/Scared of Beautiful

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=484089&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/41PwFUEt9XE3Cz0H8RA7vU?si=dajS-x4NT7aV7OsCg5ewXw

Review:

“Despite her blessings, Two Eleven often finds Brandy in romantically shaky situations, if not under self-imposed house arrest. In “Hardly Breathing,” she sings of having reached a breaking point as synths drip in the background like a leaky faucet. Elsewhere, on “Scared Of Beautiful,” co-written by Frank Ocean, the singer sighs as she takes stock of a lover’s lack of mirrors — to her, a sign that he’s refusing to see a good thing.

Two Eleven‘s songs are about being bedridden (“So Sick”), cursing the other women in his life (“Wish Your Love Away”), and, in rare weak moments, “painting” closets, faucets, the balcony “with our love.” What makes it all work, though, is how Brandy’s voice hints at strength that can only come with emotional distance. Its voice is tinged with regret, but it also has some bite, never sounding defeated for long.

Granted, Brandy isn’t a powerhouse vocalist like Whitney was. But while her voice isn’t muscular, it certainly is agile. Fortunately, she teamed up here with a slew of new-to-her producers and songwriters (Rico Love, MIDI Mafia, Sean Garrett, Mario Winans, etc.) who know how to play up her strengths. “Slower” (as in how he should act in bed) owes a sizable debt to Justin Timberlake‘s “My Love,” although Brandy raps through her compliments and directions faster than T.I. did. The Lykke Li-sampling “Let Me Go” is particularly infectious because of its skipping, hiccuping chorus: “B-b-b-let me go, b-b-b-baby don’t you let me.” And even in the pulsing “So Sick,” Brandy alternates between coasting and scattering through her grievances, tugging at her voice as if it was strapped to a leash.

“Just wanted someone real to love me for me / me, just Brandy,” the singer declares at one point on Two Eleven. She’s singing to a new beau, but her words also make for an apt statement to fans, if not critics who’ve heard her since age 15. She may have felt hard-pressed to emphasize the album’s firm R&B roots, but what’s more important is that for once, she doesn’t sound hard-pressed to play a wholesome role, or some hyper-idealized version of herself. Here, she’s just Brandy” – Idolator

Choice Cut: Wildest Dreams

The Underrated Gem

 

Human

Release Date: 5th December, 2008

Labels: Epic/Knockout/Koch

Producers: Chase N. Cashe/Dirty Swift/Dernst ‘D'Mile’ Emile/Toby Gad/Hit-Boy/Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins/Brian Kennedy/Bruno Mars/RedOne/Soundz/Dapo Torimiro/Bruce Wayne

Standout Tracks: Long Distance/Human/True

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=199735&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5FzwCzwtVRuep9jjnhGpn4?si=aanAJGAyQ9mjrXc8_9gV_w

Review:

“Brandy Norwood, 29, has grown up in public, from perky multimillion-selling teenager and sitcom star to unwed mother and tenacious celebrity. Her 2004 album, “Afrodisiac,” pointedly addressed her breakup with her daughter’s father, to whom she had pretended to be married. In 2006 she was involved in a fatal freeway accident in which she was not charged as a criminal but faces a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit. “Human,” the title song of her new album, sounds like special pleading as she sings, “I make mistakes but I can’t turn back time.”

On “Afrodisiac” Brandy changed her main producer — to Timbaland from Rodney Jerkins — and showed a wounded, embittered, almost unguarded side. Commercially it was a daring mistake; it was her first album not to sell at least a million copies.

She shifted labels and managers and took four years between albums and clearly decided to provide a pop product with “Human.” Mr. Jerkins has returned as the main producer, and the sentiments of the songs, whether self-affirming or heartbroken, are back to generic ones. “With you is where I’d rather be,” she sings in “Long Distance,” a hymnlike single that distantly echoes Janet Jackson’s “Again.”

In current R&B banal lyrics often arrive in wildly eccentric settings, and through her career Brandy has been a diligent and adaptable vehicle for the ideas of her producers, summoning multiple voices: light, raspy, breathy, sharp. Mr. Jerkins can be one of the most baroquely inventive R&B songwriters and producers, interlacing voices and instruments in dizzying patterns like those in “Right Here (Departed),” with its ricocheting vocal syncopations, or in “Torn Down,” with Brandy turning into countless overlapping vocal ensembles.

Yet for all the dexterity in the details, the songs too obviously strive for the familiar, imitating not just Ms. Jackson but Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige. Song titles like “Torn Down” and “Shattered Heart” show how much Brandy is trying to get serious, taking on an adult world where happily ever after is elusive. But she still comes across as a fledgling, a personality still being formed, eagerly tagging along after her role models” – The New York Times

Choice Cut: Right Here (Departed)

The Latest Album

 

B7

Release Date: 31st July, 2020

Labels: Brand Nue/One

Producers: Matthew Burnett/Darhyl ‘DJ’ Camper/LaShawn Daniels/Jordan Evans/Hit-Boy/Brandy Norwood/Cory Rooney/Alonzo ‘Lonnie’ Smalls II/Joshua ‘YXSH’ Thomas

Standout Tracks: Saving All My Love/No Tomorrow/Baby Mama (featuring Chance the Rapper)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1781476&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/09jppw0ufVFDiotrHDMK1w?si=c0vNRWOGTOih9Y7fg-KH6A

Review:

“Brandy is one of the few performers still standing who has unarguably shaped and moulded an entire genre. Releasing her debut album at the tender age of 15, she went on to eclipse 40 million sales worldwide, defining and re-defining pop tropes at will. Simply put, she’s one of R&B’s true icons, a Queen from the 90s Imperial phase. And now she’s back.

‘B7’ is a rich return, one that finds Brandy eschewing the culture of the feature to focus on herself, her life, and her artistry. Guests are carefully picked - Sy’Rai, Chance the Rapper, and the sometimes-cancelled Daniel Caesar – but only ever to amplify the song and the message; the central voice is hers, with Brandy sitting at the centre of her own creative solar system.

Opening with the exceptionally beautiful ‘Save All My Love’ the album is marked out as personal, cutting a little deeper than most. A rush of emotion that tackles self-worth, motherhood, and a whole lot more, by the time we reach bluntly titled closer ‘Bye Bipolar’ we’re left to wonder, has she ever been as explicitly honest as this?

‘All My Life’ (Parts One and Two) is a supreme act of soulful autobiography, but while she’s open about the struggles she’s been through, Brandy places emphasis on her optimistic aspects. ‘B7’ is weighted by statements of affirmation, with ‘I Am More’ and ‘Rather Be’ becoming mantra-like motions towards positive manifestation.

‘High Heels’ ushers its way towards sheer joy, with Brandy linking up alongside Sy’Rai to dance into the inky twilight. ‘Say Something’ is a poem about communication, while the itchily infectious ‘Baby Mama’ finds Brandy sparring alongside Chance the Rapper on a potent ode to motherhood.

The long-awaited follow up to 2012’s ‘Two Eleven’, ‘B7’ is perhaps a little overlong. Mid-album cuts such as ‘Borderline’ are no more than nice – pleasing on the ear, tugging at the heartstrings, but failing to match the gravitational pull of the record’s true highlights.

That being said, ‘B7’ is a triumph. A record worth savouring, it sits alongside NewGen R&B talent – step forward ChloexHalle, we see you Kiana Lede – while retaining that classic touch. A master of the form, it’s a joy to have Brandy back in our lives” – CLASH

Choice Cut: Borderline

FEATURE: Spotlight: Elkka

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Elkka

___________

A D.J, producer, artist and label boss…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lambert

Elkka is someone who is among the most multi-talented and strongest talents around. Her recent E.P., Harmonic Frequencies, is amazing. Euphoric Melodies, released earlier in the year, is another stunning E.P. I am going to come to the present-day in a bit. Before that, I want to spotlight a DJ Mag. This was at the stage when Elkka released the E.P., Every Body Is Welcome:

“ON ELKKA’s new EP, there’s a slow-burning house track based on a sample of Laurie Anderson, the New York performance artist who had a surprise hit with ‘O Superman’. Everyone wants to know exactly what kind of artist I am, Anderson sighs, as ‘Avant Garde’ builds to a climax: “Who cares?” This is the kind of DGAF attitude — sampled, chopped and placed on a Floorplan-esque pedestal — that sums up where Elkka is at right now.

It wasn’t always this way. The Cardiff-born musician spent many gruelling years behind the scenes, trying to crack the industry as a pop songwriter. But four years after abandoning the studio sessions to go it alone, Elkka has built a miniature empire — producing, DJing, throwing parties and running a label under the banner femme culture. “Laurie Anderson does whatever the fuck she wants,” Elkka explains, chatting from her home in South London. “I’ve always been obsessed with strong, charismatic women who fight for what they want and push the boundaries. I cared for so long about what people thought about me — is the music cool? Are people going to judge me for what I’ve done in the past? So that statement — ‘who cares?’ — was so important for me.”

She’s also borrowed the purring voice of soul singer Eartha Kitt, who appears on the dreamy ‘LVURSLF’ to announce, “I fall in love with myself and I want someone to share it with me.” These are the women that power ‘Every Body Is Welcome’, an EP that confirms Elkka’s transformation from peppy dance-pop songwriter to self-taught producer of dancefloor dominators. Her love of classic house is on display throughout, from the tracky intensity of ‘Avant Garde’, with its nod to DJ Pierre’s Wild Pitch remixes, to the acid-tinged celebration of the title track— an astrology-themed call-and-response anthem. What is it about queer girls and horoscopes? Elkka howls in recognition. “I’m always desperately trying to write a queer anthem,” she laughs. “The queer origins of house in Chicago and New York resonated with me so much when I sat down to write. I wanted to make something that was euphoric and celebratory of all of those things.”

Now 30, Elkka spent much of her twenties in recording studios, “rebounding from producer to producer, never feeling comfortable and in control”. She remembers being jealous of the producers in charge of the sessions but lacking the confidence to follow her own path. “That uncertainty allows people to take control from you. They sense that they don’t know yourself,” she remembers. In seven years, she never once worked with a female producer. “At some point I realised this wasn’t going to produce a body of work that was substantial and unique.” So in 2015 she quit the pop sessions and set out on her own “fake it ‘til you make it” journey”.

I would encourage a deep dive of Elkka’s work for anyone that is new. Across her E.P.s and singles, there is so much work one can immerse themselves in. I have watched her videos online and read interviews with her. She is such an engrossing and exceptional talent who will only grow bigger and more popular. I have put social media links at the bottom so that one can follow her. Glamcult interviewed Elkka and gave some focus to her own label, femme culture. They also asked her what it was like being a Queer artist:

“Not to promote unhealthy behaviour, but we when we obsess over something or someone, it’s vigorous and it lasts. And if you’ve recently checked our Spotify favourite artists, you’re perhaps already in the know that our ears (and hearts) cannot take enough of one particular artist: Elkka. More than just your typical, fleeting DJ obsession, the London-based artist is actively building the blocks for a better tomorrow. Last Friday, Elkka released her first record, “Everybody is Welcome”, under her own label femme culture. Alongside its absolute dedication to feel-good vibes, the EP embodies a message of community building for LGBT+ individuals within the music industry, but also for everyone in need of space of freedom and acceptance. Glamcult caught up with Elkka right after the release, for a chat on the urgency of idealism, her recent (and giant) b2b2b with Jamie xx, and pop stars.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lambert 

Diving straight into the deep: you describe yourself as a woman and a queer person. How do these identities interact within you and each other?

It’s a conversation I have with myself regularly, because I put that forward quite clearly and it’s a really big part of my identity. I was having this discussion with myself of how I wanted to be identified as a human being and as an artist, and that seems to be the front of everything I say and do. So, I questioned it for a minute. Do I want to be defined by being a woman and/or being a queer person? Actually, yes. [Laughs] I do, because it informs so much about who I am and about the people I surround myself with, about the things I enjoy, the life I want to lead. I always knew I was a woman, but before realizing I was queer, I was very lost as a human being and had quite a different life. So, in discovering that and finding myself and finding who I really was and not being scared of that, that was such a liberating thing, such an important thing and at the front of who I am. I’m quite proud of that. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love being a woman and I love being queer.

How would you define queer?

It’s very personal, very specific to each person. For me, I think queer is “other”. I think what’s beautiful about being able to label yourself as queer, if you want to label yourself, is that you don’t actually have to define, specifically, what you are in that bracket. I know I’m queer, but my identity changes, day to day, week to week, month to month of what I am within that bracket, so I love that it gives me freedom as well.

How do you think your label, femme culture, is having a positive impact?

We’re a small label; we just try to positively contribute to the landscape of the music industry and the arts world. Impact feels like such a big word, but I hope we’re having an impact. I think what’s at the heart of what we do, alongside championing women, and womxn, non-binary people and the LGBT+ community, is bring a sense of community. I really feel like London and, generally, society for young people can be quite isolating in some respects, whether it’s through social media or something else. We live a very different life than twenty years ago, and it’s a good thing in so many respects, but I also feel like that sense of community has kind of changed. Part of the reason I set up “femme culture” originally is, alongside championing the mentioned groups and enabling them to create their own platform, that I wanted to connect with real people. I think that our parties and events represent the heart of what we do. We want everybody to feel included; we’re fighting for balance for everybody. It’s called “femme culture”, but in some way that doesn’t cover what we really stand for, which is for everybody to have their place and space, and feel welcome. I hope we have a small impact to encourage that way of thinking and being.

Do you remember the moment when you decided, “I’m going to start this label”?

The moment this thought process started was probably when I was going to a Jamie xx concert in Brixton, in London, with my girlfriend. He’s someone who I really admire. I just came from another session with another producer, you know the 100th one, just going there and writing these “OK” tracks, but not feeling really heard or like I was progressing as a solo musician. I was doing well as a writer, but my own artistry was getting lost completely, and I just cried, I completely broke down. I was like, “This isn’t working, I can’t do this, I’m not going anywhere”. I was aware enough to realize that this wasn’t going to work like this, so something had to change. We didn’t go to see Jamie xx. I couldn’t see him and I felt like I couldn’t go listen for two hours to someone I really admire so much, but feel so far away from. So, we didn’t go. Next day, I started producing for myself and that was really the beginning of me as an artist. Then, I spent a year putting the EP together alongside a friend of mine. I then found a distributer, but they need you to put a name of your label. I didn’t even think of the fact that I was setting up a label, but on paper I was. Like with everything I do, it has to have some thought behind it. If something’s going to represent me, even if it’s a label name, I really want it to be meaningful. And I stumbled across femme culture, it seemed to represent me as an artist and I knew that I wanted to do something beyond myself. So, that’s how it came about and it blossomed from there. It became obvious that it should be some kind of collective, a community, and that it should be for people that we’re trying to represent as well. That was kind of a turning point for me.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lambert 

How was coming to age in London for you?

I came to London straight. [Laughs] I didn’t know who I was at all. I guess the first few years of living in London I lived a very different kind of life. What London allowed me to do was to tap into a community of people that were similar to whom I was becoming. I grew up in Cardiff, which is a fair-sized city in Wales, and I studied in Bath, which is also quite small. I had friends that thought very differently from how I did, and the more I discovered who I was, the more I realized how different our paths were going to be. Slowly finding people with whom you connect with, that make sense to you as a human being, was the most incredible thing. Now, I’m very lucky to live in a city where I have lots of great friends, a girlfriend too; it’s a great place to be creative, it’s very cosmopolitan and I need that in my life. I want to be somewhere where everybody is welcome, ha! [Laughs]. Oh, that was so bad. I come from Jewish immigrant grandparents and it really resonates with me being somewhere, where everybody can find a place, especially now more than ever, with what’s going on in the UK and everywhere else in the world. So, I guess London gave me that freedom.

I am going to end with a recent NME interview. Before that, I would steer people towards the new E.P., Harmonic Frequencies. The reviews I have seen of it are very positive and glowing. Even though her music mixes House, Electronic and other genres, it is dreamy and physical. There is something in there for any music fan. This is what Resident Advisor had to say about one of the best E.P.s of this year:

“Dance music's capacity to heal is a real thing. Artists like Elkka are in the business of harnessing and redirecting energy at will, and at their best they can shift the mood of a room with the flick of a wrist (or the turn of a knob). "Harmonic Frequencies," the title track from her upcoming EP, is pure euphoria bottled into a skippy house cut. "With this track, I think you can feel the pent-up energy that exploded out of everyone when we were able to reunite and dance together again," Elkka says in the liner notes. It's a musical oasis, one that appeared to her in a desert of pandemic-induced inactivity”.

I want to finish with that NME interview. One can tell how instinctive music is to Elkka. She creates this whole world with her sounds. You can get lost in what she puts out! Among other things, Elkka was asked about club culture and euphoria:

“For Elkka, making music is so ingrained in her that she thinks it’s somewhere in her DNA. “I remember sitting in a car with my best mates, we were probably 11 or 12, and I was trying to explain the concept of – I know music is what I’m gonna do, but where is this coming from?” In the same way that people talk about a vocation to become a doctor, the Cardiff-born producer always knew she was going to be a musician: “I really can’t imagine doing anything else,” she says. “I think that has kept me going to this point. There were moments where I could’ve easily gone and chose a different path that would have been so much more comfortable and less traumatic, but that deep-down feeling of this is what I’m meant to be doing has kept me moving forward.”

Where previous EPs for Local Action [India Jordan] and the femme culture label she co-runs put vocal samples front and centre, ‘Euphoric Melodies’ uses them more subtly for texture and to evoke feeling. ‘Alexandra’, a track dedicated to Elkka’s girlfriend, builds gradually with meandering synths and UK garage-like vocal chops. The entire record glints with flashes of melody and pointillist rhythms, just like a DJ set that keeps you locked in. Closer ‘Morning Fuzz’ then plays out like a shutters-up end of the night anthem for when the sun peeks in.

When she started work on it, before the pandemic kicked in, Elkka had been interested in the idea of euphoria: “What moments when I’m writing something, or DJing, what does it do for me? Why do I get that feeling?” But all the things that had previously made her feel good, not only music, but touch, intimacy, family and friends, were taken away. She tears up when talking about her mum, whose name is proudly tattooed on her arm, lovingly describing her as a “pioneer” and a “hero”. The EP, then, became about missing the things we previously took for granted.

For years, Elkka forged a different path before making the boundary-pushing electronic music she does today, that stands up next to the likes of Four Tet, Kelly Lee Owens and Floating Points, who have all championed her work. She’d always wanted to be a pop star, idolising Britney when she was little (“free Britney!” she adds), and started out vocaling dance-pop tracks. But over the years the producers she worked with were almost entirely male, and she came to realise that she’d rather be doing their job. Her own production journey was a process of growing self-belief and of rejecting the internalised message that producing and DJing was for boys.

Adequate representation to Elkka is vital, as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community. The queer origins of house music in Chicago and New York resonated with her and the dancefloor played a huge part in her coming out and accepting her sexuality. “I was actually quite a uptight teenager and young adult, because I wasn’t very comfortable in my own skin, and probably repressing the fact that I was a queer woman,” she says. When she moved to London in her 20s, a housemate took her to her first proper rave with thousands of people. It was a pivotal moment. “I loved it,” she glows.

Discovering club culture coincided with her discovering who she was: “Because with raving, you’re connected in more ways than you realise. You’ve chosen to be there because you like the music, the kind of people there, the space… That gave me the confidence to be who I was, and not repress it any more”.

A tremendous composer, D.J. and artist, go and follow Elkka and invest in her work. She is someone I discovered recently, but I have been really affected by her music. She can produce music and sounds that are so transformative and emotional. She is a sensational talent who will be around and making brilliant music…

FOR decades more.

____________

Follow Elkka

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Lambert 

Official:

https://www.elkka.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ElkkaMusic

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/elkkamusic/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/elkkamusic/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Ly0z60jjgsY4rkmjRFtPS?si=TN9W0TgVSoqxrJB5sXl_0Q  

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTYXhePTysLp31vJahRPbQ

FEATURE: Modern Heroines: Part Eighty: The Anchoress

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern Heroines

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Warring 

Part Eighty: The Anchoress

___________

FOR this eightieth part…

 PHOTO CREDIT: The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies)

of my Modern Heroines feature, I am saluting a woman I have a tonne of respect for. Welsh producer, artist and all-round inspiration Catherine Anne Davies is otherwise known as The Anchoress. She released one of this year’s best albums., The Art of Losing, on 12th March. I would encourage anyone to get the album. Davies has been unable to tour the album, as she is clinically vulnerable and the pandemic means that tour dates have been pushed to next year. In fact, the first date – in my hometown of Guildford – comes almost a year to day after the release of The Art of Losing. On 11th March, 2022 you can go and see her at The Boileroom. The effect of Brexit has caused issue when it comes to the supplying and delivering the album to fans in Europe. I am referring to Davies as The Anchoress, as I am celebrating the artist and, therefore, her moniker is the one I am going to employ. As Catherine Anne Davies, she spoke with NME earlier in the year about some of the issues faced. Let’s hope that things improve in 2022 in terms of the supply chain and the pandemic. I know that many are looking forward to seeing The Anchoress perform. She is an amazing artist I have been following a while (and one whom I interviewed earlier in the year). Like I do with these features, it is a combination of interviews and reviews of the current album. I am ending with a playlist of the best tracks so far from The Anchoress.

The first interview that I want to highlight is from The Indiependent. Five years after the lauded debut album, Confessions of a Romance Novelist, The Art of Losing took The Anchoress to new heights. It is interesting reading her talk about the album:

“The Indiependent: That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? So, it’s been five years since your last album but you haven’t stopped. You’ve toured with Simple Minds. You’ve toured with the Manics obviously and collaborated with them, and also you released an album with Bernard Butler that came out last year. Do you feel you have to be writing music? Or do you just have to be working in general? Because you’ve said before that you came into music  accidentally, it just sort of happened.

The Anchoress: Yeah, I mean, I finished The Art of Losing in the beginning of 2019. So it was due to come out the year before. And then it came out in 2021 so obviously, it was really exciting, even though for me obviously there wasn’t hardly any gap. I know I wasn’t sitting around twiddling my thumbs at any point but it feels like a really long time since the first record. It’s so strange, and then releasing a record when you’re not really engaging with the outside world is also very bizarre so obviously had like all these amazing reviews and pride but I’m not gonna go to a record shop and see it in a record shop, which is just weird. I think I do like to be busy, I like to be occupied. I’ve got quite a busy brain. I don’t like holidays, either. I’m not a fan of going on holiday. And I enjoy work, whatever that may be. And I’ve always been a bit like that. When I was at university I did two degrees at the same time because I didn’t feel occupied, and I did my PhD when I was making the first record as well. I think I like to be busy. And that’s been quite challenging, actually, during lockdown. Obviously, I’m super lucky that I’ve got the studio here to work in. But it is one kind of work only and obviously then you’re limited in terms of not being able to have people working here with. I’ve been forced to take a little bit of time out, which I think has been good for me.

The Indiependent: The thing that really struck me is that not only is it such a different sound from your debut, but even within the album itself, there are completely different sounds—’Moon Rise’, ‘Show Your Face’—is that a conscious decision? Is that deliberate? Or is it just what feels right at the time for you

The Anchoress: That’s just how music comes out of me. I do think this and Confessions of a Romance Novelist are similar in a way to that because obviously you’ve got tracks with slow piano, atmospheric kind of pieces, then ‘One for Sorrow’, which is almost like a pop-funk track. I think I’ve always wanted to make sure that I only do the kind of music that I enjoy, and because I love everything from Prince to Max Richter that’s going to come out in the music that I make.

I’m very lucky because I licence my albums to a label. So I’ve got no one breathing down my neck saying we want 10 radio friendly tracks, but we want 10 you know progressive rock tracks, I can just do precisely what I want. So the album’s just sound that various because I have that many different interests in music. I think I would be really bored to make an album of 10 songs that sounded very similar. So I’m just indulging my own musical tastes really. It’s not conscious. I just  think of each track as an individual world. So like with ‘Moon Rise’, for instance, it was just like, I really want to do this, and I’m just gonna do this, I don’t think about the other track at the same time. And then when I was doing ‘Show Your Face’, I was really obsessed with the OB six synthesiser that I just bought, so I just became super focused on the single track. I’m autistic so I think that that’s partly to do with the way that my brain works — I have this just hyperfocus. I’m unable to shut everything out and maybe that is why I don’t consider whether one track relates to another. Somehow it does hang together as a finished piece.

The Indiependent: You’ve mentioned before that this album draws on a lot of the recent trauma that you’ve had in the last few years. So did you find this a cathartic experience or an escape from that? Or was it both?

The Anchoress: It was a little bit of both, maybe, but I think ultimately it wasn’t cathartic. I think therapy is for that. As usual, work is a distraction for me, and it just was the only answer in the moment of experiencing all these really difficult things. But it also became a working through of past trauma as well. Interestingly, and I don’t think I had consciously realised that until I was kind of up to the point where I’m thinking about putting ‘5am’ on the record. So it became more than just a record of what I’ve been going through in those couple of years. I really shy away from the idea of songwriting as cathartic, because I think I’m always trying to serve the listener, it’s not about me serving myself — as I say, therapy is the space for your catharsis and not a public arena. I guess I was still very conscious of only wanting to share as much as I wanted to within the songs and still having those boundaries. They’re safe boundaries for yourself, you know, not wanting everybody to know every detail about your life. It’s a really strange dance, I think, between catharsis and distraction.

The Indiependent: One thing this album does is that whilst of course, no one can relate directly to your experiences and what it is you’re singing about, the album conveys those emotions and those raw feelings so brilliantly. I’m just wondering, where do you tend to draw your inspiration from? Is it entirely personal?

The Anchoress: I’m a bit like a sponge and I really do believe that you’ve got to inhale enough stuff to have things of interest to then exhale. You know, it’s literature, it’s music, it’s films, it’s conversations that I overhear, or documentaries or podcasts. It’s everything, but not in a kind of conscious magpie sense. It’s just they’ll all inform how I’m processing a particular theme or concept or idea. But I think this album obviously was much more personally inspired than anything that I’ve done before. It’s interesting, having started out my career as The Anchoress with quite a conscious intention to avoid the confessional, hence the title of the first album [Confessions of a Romance Novelist], I really didn’t want to write confessional, autobiographical work and obviously, I couldn’t have foreseen that I would end up writing this record. I had actually started a completely different album beforehand but you’ve got to follow where the muse takes you. You’ve got to be led by where the art takes you and also to do something that’s uncomfortable. I think it was always super uncomfortable for me to talk about myself and so that feels enormously satisfying to have to have done that over a whole album’s worth of work, and for it to have been so well received. I think it’s especially difficult for women to do that in a songwriting arena, because often diaristic autobiographically-led work can tend to be  evaluated in a more pejorative way than perhaps men. We look at the difference between the way that we talk about Bob Dylan’s lyricism versus Tori Amos or Alanis Morissett. There’s such a lot of subtle misogyny that goes on there and I think that really informed me when I was starting out in not wanting to be autobiographical. So it’s nice to get to that point where I’ve recognised that there’s a lot of skill, and there was a lot of difficulty in creating good autobiographical work and throwing off those shackles of “Oh god, what if people say that it’s diaristic? Or like, Tori Amos or something like that?”. So I’ve been on a kind of journey with myself with that. Maybe I got rid of a little bit of my own internalised misogyny about what women can write about and be respected for”.

There is another quite detailed and deep interview that I learnt a lot from. Under the Radar Mag spoke with The Anchoress to get to the bottom and into the heart of a remarkable album:

“When did you first start writing the songs that would go on to become The Art of Losing? Was it always intended to be a record that dealt with personal trauma and grief?

So, the record was made in the latter part of 2018 and finished in the spring of 2019. It was originally meant to come out then but we’ve had this long delay so its nearly two years since it’s been finished. There’s a couple of songs on the record that had a prior genesis to that 2018/2019 period, but they were ones I felt fitted thematically and wanted to be resurrected and rethought. “The Heart Is a Lonesome Hunter” is a much older song. People that are familiar with my Catherine A.D. hand stitched, self-released CDs may be aware of the demo version of that. “With the Boys” was also something I started writing around the same time as that. It’s a 14-track record so obviously there’s a huge amount of new stuff that was written as well. But it also felt there were old songs that made themselves known they wanted to be finished and to be a part of that collection. So, it was all tied together. Those two songs—“With the Boys” especially—detailed my experiences with the misogynistic and patriarchal dynamics of the industry. Which is so interesting to see nearly a decade on how not much has changed from my earliest experiences. My intuition and gut feeling when writing that song aged 22 or 23 was spot on. “You gotta know what bruises are for if you want to play with the boys.” It’s still a boys club, very much so. Isn’t that frightening? Ten years on and nothing’s changed.

It’s really frightening, especially as the #metoo movement has identified and highlighted a lot of unacceptable and inappropriate behaviors throughout the music and entertainment industries. Yet for some reason, these people seem to be given a perennial free pass? Why do you think that is?

Money. When people are making money out of a situation, they’re much more likely to turn a blind eye. I think people delude themselves as well within the industry that they’re not being complicit with or enabling it. So, it ends up being nothing to do with them, or none of their business. Money makes people turn a blind eye. I think it’s as simple as that. Society is changing—albeit slowly—and more women are being encouraged to take up prominent roles in many industries yet within music nothing moves forwards.

There are small shifts. One of the things I think is really important is getting more women into studios. Where music is made, in these intimate and quite vulnerable environments. At the moment it’s 2% and rising, the number of women who are audio engineers in the UK. There’s a huge number of women who are feeling this is a safe space for them to be able to occupy and are also really interested in the technical side behind the scenes. That will have a huge impact on the safety of the environment, and the way women as artists will thrive as well. I get so many bands and artists who are women or have women as their main songwriter that want to work with me as a producer because they’re not getting the service, I’m offering them anywhere else. Not just a safe space, but also a different dynamic as well because it’s not about me and my ego. I’m not saying all producers who are men operate in that way but there can be a tendency to impress yourself at the center of it. Whereas I think women understand the relationship dynamics better. To me, being a producer is as much about being a therapist and understanding the dynamics of the people in the room as it is about understanding how to operate a mixing desk. As women, we are fundamentally very good at managing relationships and managing a room full of people. I actually think our gender is an advantage when it comes to being a producer.

One of the most startling aspects of the album is the range of sonics, styles and moods. It doesn’t follow any one specific sound or pattern. Was that always your intention, to disrupt the flow even rather than create something predictable or obvious?

I think that’s just naturally what I do as The Anchoress. The first album was very much a jukebox record as well, although I think it’s much less coherent or realized than this one. I love so many different kinds of music so it’s going to come through naturally. Also, I don’t have that record company pressure, or other band members, or another producer trying to push something into their expected format. A lot of albums are just expected to have one sound or one shape, one color or one pallet. That’s just never been something that interests me. I just make the records that I love, which by their very nature are multiplicitous. Taking in all of the things I love. Deftones, the Manics to Max Richter. They are a record of what I love and I always use them as a sonic playground. It was me setting out my stall with this album too, because I’d experienced that annoying misogynistic attitude towards the last record. Where assumptions were made about my workload, and my work skills. So, I wanted people to listen to it and know this is on me, this is what I can do. I wanted it to be ambitious. I wanted it to take in a huge, wide range of sounds, instruments and arrangements. It really is like a sonic CV. Come hire me as your producer because this is what I can do! Ultimately, I would be happiest in my studio producing records for other people. I’m not a natural performer.

Is that something you see yourself doing more of in the future, producing other artists?

Absolutely, it really is. But I’m still coming up against that glass ceiling. It’s amazing, even when other female artists have said to me privately, they’re desperate to work with a woman in the studio yet, ultimately, they end up going back to that male producer that people know or they’ve worked with before. It’s quite difficult to break the pattern, so I’m hoping this record sets out my stall and acts as a bit of a calling card. It’s really hard to break through when you’re spending other people’s budgets and they’re making the call about who’s going to produce their next record. Are they going to come to me or will those cultural presumptions prevail so they end up going with the guy who made that band’s record 10 years ago? You need that cultural authority, that stamp of approval from working with a big-name artist. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to make that leap from artist/producer to producer for others. I’m fighting. I’m fighting the good fight here!

“All Farewells Should Be Sudden” is one of the most harrowing but also moving pieces on the record, particularly with the church bells ringing at the end. Was it especially difficult to write and perform

Absolutely. It was written in the wake of my father’s death, thinking about what happens to us when we die. I wanted to explore the different religious constructions of the afterlife. What happens? Do you fold and do it all again? Are we reincarnated? I was obsessively watching the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival and thinking about that central conundrum it poses. If we know what suffering and loss we’re in for, do we make those decisions again? I don’t want to give away any spoilers for anyone that’s not seen the film but it sets that up as a kind of fundamental human question. Do we pursue suffering? Or if the price of love is suffering do we still pursue it? So, it was really exploring that in the two years after my dad died where I was deeply grief stricken. He was very young. He was only 59. He didn’t retire or get to do any of the things that he’d planned and it just felt so cruel.

It was so sudden. Just 16 weeks after we were standing in the queue at Greenwich Maritime Museum, and he couldn’t get the word for coffee. I knew something wasn’t right, then three weeks later he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. So, it was 12 weeks after that he dropped dead very suddenly at home. Which is where the title comes from, “All Farewells Should Be Sudden.” The trauma in that; it wasn’t a prolonged illness. We barely had time to absorb the information before he was gone. He actually died when I was recording guitar for “My Confessor.” The very moment he passed away. That is memorialized in the record itself. I kept that original take and put it on the record because that felt important when I was finally able to return to it. My dad is deeply woven throughout the album. But it was less about writing a song specifically about him, and more about how do we process death. How do we process this kind of compulsion to think about what happens when we die? Do people come back? Will we see them again? Does religion help us? I guess I’m always in the mindset of what would the Manics do if they were writing a song about this. It is that piecing over of all of the different ideas around death then reincarnation and the afterlife that I wanted to look at in “All Farewells…”.

Another song which stands out for me as one of the most instantly touching pieces on the album is “Unravel.” What inspired you to write that song?

It’s about trying to unravel everything. The way that things we love drag us down. I never really think about what my songs are about. But I do think about which ones are the most difficult to produce and arrange and for this album, that was “Unravel.” I almost pulled it off the record because I wasn’t pleased with it, but now I’m glad I didn’t because its one of my favorite tracks on the album. I really wrestled with the arrangement. It wasn’t working and had too many synths on it so I stripped it right back down to just strings and piano. At one point it became this really dense, Cure-esque piece”.

Because The Art of Losing is one of the truly great albums of this year, it helps to prove that with some critical reviews. The Line of Best Fit were in no short supply of compliments when it came to The Anchoress’ stunning second album:

“With her debut, Davies took the place of a modern-day Kate Bush, which can feel like a lazy comparison but it should be held with high esteem given Confessions Of A Romance Novelist perfectly depicted being, and embracing, yourself. Following that up, after a fully booked diary not only supporting her album but hitting the road with Simple Minds, came before she knew it.

Recently, Davies has stated: “I found myself in the midst of such deep grief and sadness that I had more material, emotionally speaking, than any one person could need to draw on for a lifetime of songwriting.” It’s these depths that squarely erupt in a dedicated outpouring, appearing in various forms on The Art of Losing, but indeed wallowing isn’t one of them.

Instrumental opener “Moon Rise (Prelude)” holds that crystallising moment of grief first rearing its bittersweet head; where the world freezes, holding onto the last remnants of lives that are hell-bent on adapting and changing even when nothing could feel less natural.

A concept album this is not, but the with the veins running deep with recurring themes, as a second album, Davies has managed to construct a weighty signifier of impassable change. Certainly, when deep into the throes of a sun-kissed summer, this isn’t an album that can offer any further escape - it’s purposeful, it isn’t supposed to retain - this is an album for healing.

Packing a punch musically; twisting and turning; immersing with piano interludes branching elegantly from the albums introductory roots (“All Shall Be Well”), the softest nature is held for later cut “5am” which feels as vulnerable as it does honest.

The titular track, which Davies has referred to as the centrepiece of the album, comes packed with undulating synths and action-packed rattling drums to create a sense of befitting urgency. Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield comes in early doors on the whirring and raging, “The Exchange”, where the two’s voices find equal pegging in failed romance. “Unravel” concocts an eighties gift for all those ready to feast upon a buffet of delicate ethereal synths, tribal drums and emotional pleading “If you don’t want me / then I don’t want me”.

“My Confessor” is a reckoning which sees Davies bellowing “Is this love?”, leading nicely into the tapering off rear. There’s an air of exhaustion that echoes through the closing moments, where the fight, depending on the situation, finds a conclusion or leads back, ready for round one with the lunar bookend “Moon (An End)”, but not without a gentle, hopeful swell before a voice advises “For once in your life just let it go”.

Grief will always exist; in the truest of relationships, to the blood we wrenchingly say goodbye to. It’s as natural as the trees we watch wither and wilt on a yearly basis, but how we deal with it is up to us, and Davies’ fight back is well worth remembering in those times of grave need”.

To finish things off, one more review should prove what an inspiration artist The Anchoress is. I think that she will be a huge idol in the future. Catherine Anne Davies herself is one of our finest producers and musical voices. Someone always trying to make the industry better, The Anchoress is a wonderful artist we are very lucky to have! This is what CLASH observed about The Art of Losing:

“While ‘Confessions Of A Romance Novelist’ was by no means a shallow record, its odes to heartbreak and hardship were delivered with a theatrical, almost camp flair that complimented her novelistic way with words and love of drama. While ‘The Art of Losing’ hasn’t seen The Anchoress lose her taste for those big, Kate Bush flourishes to up the emotional stakes of her songs, there is a comparative sense of weight and seriousness given to the subject matter addressed here.

As its title suggests, this is a concept album about the sensation of loss - of reaching for something only to find it suddenly and irrevocably gone. For the first 20 minutes or so Davies largely embeds these feelings in radio-friendly, vaguely gothic bangers. ‘Show Your Face’ details the death of a friendship with someone who refuses to believe sexual assault victims, ‘The Exchange’ chronicles a loss of identity in a toxic relationship, while the title track confronts the societal taboo surrounding the discussion of miscarriages, a heavy and very personal subject to Davis that she nevertheless prevents from becoming too cutting by employing a bouncy melody and the hook from Depeche Mode’s ‘Shake The Disease’.

From ‘Paris’ onwards, however, the gloves are taken off. The production is stripped back to just piano and strings (which comes as a relief, as her Achilles’ heel when producing herself is a propensity for squeezing every cool instrument in her studio onto each track), and Davies allows her powerful voice to take centre stage. ‘5am’ is a true showstopper of a song that calmly revisits three of her most horrific memories, each of which Davies depicts with barbed-wire honesty: the hollow end of a love affair, the traumatic and non-consensual loss of her virginity, the truly distressing hospital trip that ends in a miscarriage.

This combination of poignancy and dull rage persists until the end of the record on an incredible run of tracks that ends with ‘With The Boys’, a savage indictment of her experience as a capable woman working in the patronising, testosterone-drenched world of music production (“Got to be good, got to be certain if she wants to play with the boys,” sneers the chorus).

Like it’s predecessor, ‘Art Of Losing’ is lent an air of grandiosity by the plethora of authors Dr Catherine Anne Davies (PhD Literature and Queer Theory) references throughout: Carson McCullers, Lord Byron, Julian of Norwich, etc. This time around, however, there is never any doubt in her authorial voice and ability to commandingly tell her own story, with all the tragedies and triumphs contained therein”.

One of this country’s very best artists, the incredible The Anchoress is someone who will continue to make such compelling and memorable music. Heading on tour next year, do go and see her if you can. The Art of Losing is in my top ten albums of this year. A top 40 hit that showcased her magnificent songwriting and production talent, The Anchoress is…

A national treasure.

FEATURE: My Five Favourite Tracks of 2021: Leon Bridges - Why Don't You Touch Me

FEATURE:

 

 

My Five Favourite Tracks of 2021

PHOTO CREDIT: Justin Hardiman

 Leon Bridges - Why Don't You Touch Me  

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I am being a bit cautious…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Justin Hardiman

when it comes to the five best tracks of this year. As there is still enough time for a song to steal in there, I am pretty sure about my first few selections. I especially love Leon Bridges’ Why Don’t You Touch Me. A typically stunning release from the Texan artist, it is taken from his new album, Gold-Diggers Sound. That was released back in July. That album ranks alongside the best of this year. I love Why Don’t You Touch Me, as it is the best track on the album. It is also a song where its visuals were split into two. You can see the effort that Bridges and his team put into making the videos as stunning as possible. At a time where I don’t think videos are as detailed and original as they could be, Why Don’t You Touch Me looks amazing! This is what Revolt said about the two-part video earlier in the year:

“Leon Bridges is steadily prepping fans for the release of his July project Gold-Diggers Sound. First up was his “Motorbike” single, and now he returns with his “Why Don’t You Touch Me” offering, which arrives with visuals that are split into two parts. On the song, Leon sings about coming to terms with when two lovers may be losing their fire:

I‘ve been feeling way too undesired, before the flaming out, all around, this was all on fire/ I can feel the distance go for miles/ But cold is all you are and it’s causing chills, what’s with all this? You won’t even talk about it

Can you be honest, is you just running out of thrills?/ ’Cause every time you put me second, yeah/ Girl, make me feel wanted, don’t leave me out here unfulfilled/ ’Cause we’re slowly gettin’ disconnected, yeah

In October of last year, Leon Bridges tapped in with one of R&B’s favorites Lucky Daye for their “All About You” collab. He also shared a few words about how it came about. “For this song, we set out to bring back the energy of some of the ‘90s R&B greats we grew up listening to,” Bridges said about the song via press release. “The way [collaborator] Lucky [Daye] and I met was completely organic. One night when I was out on the town in LA, I ran into a friend of Lucky’s who suggested that we should collaborate.”

Leon Bridges’ last full-length release was Good Thing back in 2018, and he has released a slew of singles since then like this year’s “Sweeter” featuring Terrace Martin, and also his four-track collaboration project Texas Sun with Khruangbin”.

With the single released on 17th June, it was a nice mid-year treat for us all. I have been a fan of Leon Bridges since he released his debut album, Coming Home, in 2015. He delivered an assuredly sublime and remarkable song with Why Don’t You Touch Me. One of the very best songs from Gold-Diggers Sound, go and listen to the song if you have not done so already. I have been playing it a lot since it came out. I also reviewed the track and was amazed by its video (I reviewed the song and included the first of the two videos).

I will finish off with a snippet of an interview from The Guardian, where we get a sense of what it was like recording Gold-Diggers Sound. The album, as noted, is Bridges at his most vulnerable:

“After finishing Good Thing, Bridges, Grammy-winning producer Ricky Reed (Halsey, Lizzo) and guitarist Nate Mercereau decided to make a third record that better reflected the broad range of Bridges’ influences – everything from Ginuwine’s irrepressibly sexual R&B to Townes Van Zandt’s despondent country. Moreover, Bridges hoped that in doing so, he would challenge some people’s myopic notions about the kind of music he should be making.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that fans tend to want to put boundaries on Black expression. If I wear a grill or dance to some hip-hop with my homies, people are in the comments like, ‘What happened to …?’ ‘I wish you were …’ They want me to play it safe,” Bridges says. “I can get down on some Marvin Gaye shit and some Young Thug shit, and it’s all us. This is our culture.”

To make the record, he, Reed and Mercereau drank tequila in the afternoon and coffee at night, piecing together songs from extensive jam sessions. Reed pushed Bridges to reveal more of his personal life on record. “Our sessions were like noon to five,” the producer explains. “Then every night Leon goes out, does his thing, and comes back the next day: ‘Ah, it was crazy, man. We started here, then went there, and had dinner with so-and-so.’ And I’m like: can I get that guy in the studio? Can we get night-time Leon on record?”

Gold-Diggers Sound offers sides of “night-time Leon” – the aforementioned Magnolias or the southern blues-soul-gospel hybrid Sho Nuff – but it also shows Leon at his most vulnerable and political. Sweeter finds Bridges yearning for peace for Black people, an escape from “those judging eyes”. Though the pandemic stalled his plans to release Gold-Diggers Sound in 2020, Bridges released Sweeter at the height of last year’s protests against police brutality. He couldn’t remain silent”.

One of the truly great tracks of this year (I am including singles as opposed album tracks), Why Don’t You Touch Me is a pearl. I know that Leon Bridges will continue to make sensational music for years to come. Tracks like Why Don’t You Touch Me are proof of his…

IMMENSE talent!

FEATURE: To Hear Your Footsteps Saying… Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again and Home for Christmas

FEATURE:

 

 

To Hear Your Footsteps Saying…

Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again and Home for Christmas

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I wrote about…

the Kate Bush Christmas single, December Will Be Magic Again, a while back. I think her two Christmas tracks are very underrated. Home for Christmas is also a very good song. I know it may be a bit early to talk about Christmas, but these are songs that are so warming and beautiful! There is more information about December Will Be Magic Again, so I will work my way up to that. Home for Christmas originally appeared in on The Comic Strip Presents film, Wild Turkey. That was screened on 24th December, 1992. I love the music Bush recorded between 1991 and 1993. Maybe not the most celebrated period of her career, she covered Elton John’s Rocket Man in 1991. She released The Red Shoes in 1993. This Christmas track in the middle is a delight that really evokes the spirit of the season! In the song, Bush projects this sweetness and child-like hope: “You know that I'll be waiting/To hear your footsteps saying/That you'll be coming home for Christmas/Please say you won't forget me/That every moment's empty/But only 'til you're coming home for Christmas”. There is this longing and sense of desire that runs through quite a few Christmas songs. Rather than wanting anything material or commercial, it is the hope of bring with someone. Like Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You – though Bush is less impassioned and radiant; more sensual and smoky -, Bush has her eyes and desires on someone special. To be with them, in spite of everything.

Whereas Carey wanted to eschew presents just to be with one person, Bush is battling against the weather and distance. Home for Christmas was released as the B-side to the U.K. single, of Moments of Pleasure; also as the B-side to the U.S. single, Rubberband Girl. The vocal on Home for Christmas reminds me of the turn she would produce on The Man I Love in 1994. That was for a tribute album to George & Ira Gershwin, The Glory of Gershwin. In that song, Bush provides such a soulful, sexy and shivering vocal that is among her very best. Maybe Home for Christmas’ vocal inspired her a couple of years later. Although the lyrics are simple, they are picturesque and evocative: “If I only had wings/Then I would fly to you/Through all the snowy weather/We'd be together/No one makes me feel the way you do”. I wonder whether Bush has thought about a Christmas songs in the years since 1992. The song was included in the 2018 album, Section from The Other Sides, and 2019’s The Other Sides. That is a treasure trove of B-sides and rarities. Even her less-exposed and known songs have something special and original about them. I don’t think I have heard Home for Christmas played on the radio. That is a shame, as it is a really beautiful song that is worthy of some airplay this time of year!

The better-known Bush Christmas song, December Will Be Magic Again, was released as a standalone single on 17th November, 1980. I missed marking the forty-second anniversary. It is being played on radio now and, as we head through December, I guess it will be played even more – given how its title sort of suggests that this is the month it is suited for. Bush originally recorded the song in 1979 and premiered it during the Christmas Special in December 1979. December Will Be Magic Again was issued as the follow-up to Army Dreamers (a single from 1980’s Never for Ever). I wanted to hold off doing a feature about December Will Be Magic Again until after its anniversary, just so it was closer to Christmas and December itself. It is one of the great ‘lost’ singles that is low on critics’ list of her best releases. Even though one would (or would expect to) hear it in November and December, it is a beautiful track that should not be written off as a mere novelty. During the period where she recorded Never for Ever (September 1979 – May 1980), we got this one-off track that was not on that album.  I am not sure whether there was demand from EMI for her to release her first Christmas single, or whether Bush herself felt that it was time. She has always had this child-like fascination with the wonder and magic of life. On 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, even though it is not a Christmas album, one can feel her immersed in winter and the highs and lows of snow. I almost expected to hear a Christmas song on that album!

December Will Be Magic Again reached thirteen in Ireland and twenty-nine in the U.K. That is surprisingly low. Army Dreamers got to number sixteen in the U.K., whilst the follow-up single from a studio album, Sat in Your Lap (from 1982’s The Dreaming) came out in June 1981, and it got to number eleven. This was, maybe, a period where people were waiting for a new Kate Bush album and she wasn’t as in the spotlight as much as she was prior to Never for Ever and The Dreaming. That said, December Will Be Magic Again came out only a couple of months after Never for Ever. Whatever the reason for a slightly low chart performance, it is a song that I really love! So many people have posted on social media the past week or two about how they enjoy hearing December Will Be Magic Again. I love how there was her Christmas Special, where Bush got to perform a selection of songs. In 1979 – when the show aired – she had come off the back of The Tour of Life. Ahead of Never for Ever, she still had enough material under her belt. With her first two albums, 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart, together with some other material, it was a brilliant (if curiously un-Christmas-like) T.V. special. Last December, this article came out that discussed Bush’s 1979 Special. December Will Be Magic Again was the only Christmas-related song on the bill:

“But then there’s the Kate Bush Christmas Special, “titled simply Kate on-screen,” writes Christine Pallon. The program, which “aired on the BBC on December 28th, 1979,” followed on the heels of the Tour of Life, the whirlwind debut concert series that promised, but did not deliver, so many more. “The Christmas special’s choreography borrows heavily from that tour. But where she sang live on the Tour of Life, she lip-syncs to pre-recorded tracks here and incorporates pre-recorded video segments. As a result, the Christmas special plays out more like a crazy, longform music video than a traditional stage show.”

Does Kate Bush sing Christmas songs? Does she sit on Santa’s lap? Does she mime, arms akimbo, before the yule log?

Does she lounge on a piano next to a Golden Age crooner?

C’mon…

Okay, she sings one Christmas song, “December Will Be Magic Again,” an original released as a UK single that year. The song pays earnest homage to traditional Christmas figures like Bing Crosby, Saint Nick, and Oscar Wilde before Kate turns into some kind of strange Santa-like being who drops down on “the white city” in a parachute to “cover the lovers.”

Otherwise, the Christmas Special draws on Bush’s first three albums. In addition to her entourage of dancers and backup lip-syncers, she also invites a special guest—Peter Gabriel, of course (who might just as well be called the male Kate Bush)—to sing his “Here Comes the Flood” and duet with her on the extremely downbeat “Another Day.”

Christmas spirit? Who needs it? This is Kate, answering the age-old question, Pallon writes, “what would happen if the BBC gave a Christmas special to an incredibly ambitious 21-year-old art rocker who also smokes a ton of weed?” See the full tracklist, with timestamps, just below. Enjoy, and Happy Kate Bush Christmas Special Day!

Kate Bush – Christmas Special Tracklist:

(Intro) 00:00
Violin 00:29
(Gymnopédie No.1 – composed by Erik Satie) 03:44
Symphony In Blue 04:44
Them Heavy People 08:20
(Intro for Peter Gabriel) 12:52
Here Comes The Flood (Peter Gabriel) 13:22
Ran Tan Waltz 17:02
December Will Be Magic Again 19:43
The Wedding List 23:35
Another Day (with Peter Gabriel) 28:05
Egypt 31:41
The Man With The Child In His Eyes 36:21
Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbreak 39:24”.

I love both of Kate Bush’s Christmas songs. It is the time of year where we are hearing a lot of Christmas tracks. I have heard December Will Be Magic Again played a few times. As we are now in December, it is the time to play the song loud! Both Home for Christmas and December Will Be Magic Again are beautiful tracks that convey and relate to that special time of year in different ways. The former is more sensual, lustful and deeper-sounding, whereas December Will Be Magic Again is more child-like and wide-eyed. With these two dreamy and underrated Christmas tracks out in the world, I hope that they get plenty of airtime! Whilst minor songs in the Kate Bush cannon, they are both too good…

TO be ignored.

FEATURE: My Five Favourite Tracks of 2021: Wet Leg – Chaise Longue

FEATURE:

 

 

My Five Favourite Tracks of 2021

Wet Leg – Chaise Longue

___________

I am at the three-fifths stage…

of a feature where I decide my favourites of the year. I could not ignore the debut single from the Isle of Wight duo, Wet Leg. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers formed the group and, this year, have seen their music take them to huge radio stations and festivals. If you have not heard their track, Chaise Longue, then give it a listen. I am going to quote a couple of articles where the duo looks ahead (as they released a second single. Wet Dream, not too long ago). It does seem we will get an album spring next year. Before then, Under the Radar Mag give us some Wet Leg background in their interview - in addition to the duo discussing their noted and celebrated debut single:

“The Isle of Wight, located in the English Channel just a few miles off the south coast of the UK, has certainly been punching above its weight, musically speaking of late. Post-punk duo Wet Leg is the latest buzz band to emerge from the Isle, comprising of friends Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. They’ve also recently signed to Domino Records and released their debut single “Chaise Longue” to universal acclaim.

Teasdale and Chambers met at music college and initially played in other bands before coming together to form Wet Leg. “It wasn’t until a few years after we met that we started playing together. I played the guitar on some of Rhian’s solo work and she’d play the piano on some of my stuff,” explains Chambers. “It was great fun but ultimately we decided we wanted to take a different tack, do something that was a little bit more fun and we also wanted to ‘rock out’ a bit more.”

The band name encapsulates their playfulness and irreverent sense of fun. “Wet Leg” has no coded meaning, nor was it borne out of an existential crisis. “It doesn’t really mean anything,” laughs Chambers. “It was just a couple of words that we kept coming back to. It’s quite funny when people ask us what it means and we can’t explain it. Ultimately it can mean whatever you want it to mean.”

Wet Leg’s tongue in cheek humor abounds on their hypnotic debut single, “Chaise Longue.” Fittingly the track was inspired by Chambers’ grandfather’s chaise longue. “I kind of inherited it,” she explains, “and it now lives in my flat. When Rhian stays over it’s also where she sleeps. She actually wrote all the lyrics to ‘Chaise Longue’ whilst sitting on the chaise longue (all day long).”

It only took a few demos to convince Domino Records to sign Wet Leg. “Given we’d formed pretty much at the start of the pandemic and Domino hadn’t really seen us live,” reveals Chambers. “It’s so great that they have put their faith in us.”

Chambers is also delighted, albeit somewhat taken aback, about how “Chaise Longue” has resonated with people. At the time of this writing its video has over 800,000 views on YouTube, with comments such as “This has got to be the greatest debut single in years,” “Finally something fucking different, that does something new,” and “This is going to skyrocket, and if it doesn’t, it’ll be one of the coolest gems in music history.”

“It’s been a lovely surprise,” she says, “we wrote it in one an evening, just writing for fun and being silly and we had no clue at the time that it would connect with so many people”.

NME interviewed Wet Leg earlier in the year following their successful debut single. It has taken on a life of its own:

“In June, debut single ‘Chaise Longue’, a barnstormer stuffed with impatient, overdriven riffs and deadpan one-liners (“Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?”), went unexpectedly viral – a feat so astonishing that it’s practically unheard of for guitar bands in their position. It is instantly quotable, almost painstakingly addictive, and has now been played over 2 million times on Spotify alone, helping Wet Leg find an international audience eager for their provocative lyrics and Violent Femmes-inspired grooves. This memorable introduction certainly got people talking (perhaps “a little too much”, suggests a still-bewildered Chambers), but above all else, it begged the question: when was the last time that guitar music felt this goddamn exciting?

“We could have never predicted this,” says Chambers over Zoom, pondering why the duo’s music has been received so eagerly. “We do feel really lucky – but we still have no idea what’s happening.” She looks over to Teasdale halfway through her sentences, almost as if to check that they are both on the same wavelength. “I think we’re just going to live in the moment as much as we can. I just can’t imagine things ever getting better than they are now”.

It is definitely not the case that Wet Leg are one-hit wonders! As they discussed with The Forty-Five in a great interview, there is the tantalising prospect of an album in a matter of months:

“They managed to record ‘Chaise Longue’ just before lockdown hit and in June 2021, Domino Records (Arctic Monkeys, Cat Power, Georgia) came a-knocking, taking a punt and signing them off the back of not very much at all. A week later, ‘Chaise Longue’ was released and everything blew up. The video now boasts 1.3 million views on YouTube and the song has been streamed close to four million times on Spotify. Not bad for a debut track.

By their own admission, Wet Leg are a classic introvert/extrovert pairing, Hester being the quiet one, sweet and softly spoken to frontwoman Rhian’s slightly more confident exterior. Their overall vibe – as reflected in their lyrics and oddball videos – is surrealist cottagecore post-punk. Think killer riffs, sassy one-liners, prairie dresses and the occasional giant lobster claw thrown in for good measure. They’ve been compared to the likes of Karen O, The Breeders and Le Tigre, names that feel weighty but not ill-fitting”.

But there’s not much chance of that. With so much momentum and a chaise longue full of good songs, it’s no surprise that a debut LP is already in the works.

“We’re hoping to release an album next spring or summer,” Rhian says, looking somewhat incredulous.

The pair have been working with Speedy Wunderground super-producer Dan Carey (Goat Girl, Fontaines DC, Squid) but as to whether Carey is producing the whole album? “We’re not sure if we can divulge that information”, Rhian says, squirming in her seat a little”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

I will wrap up by linking to Chaise Longue by sourcing a DIY interview from September. Stamping their mark on the scene with that debut single, many might wonder, sonically, whether Wet Leg will remain on the same course, or whether there will be surprised. It seems that, already, they have at least one famous fan:

“With the music world waiting on tenterhooks for their next moves (and a second single out later this month), Wet Leg are remaining coy about exactly what else they’ve got up their sleeves but explain, via cheery giggles, that the band offers them an outlet for their naughtier sides. “I guess sometimes it’s nice being able to lyrically say all the things you wanna say but wouldn’t because they’re not necessarily the kindest things,” Rhian hesitantly offers.

For example? “Well, there’s one called ‘Piece of Shit’ which is about a past relationship,” she chuckles. “I know it’s the old cliche of writing songs being cathartic, but that was a good one. It’s SASSY,” she declares, with a wiggle of the shoulders.

And it’s a recipe that’s already paying dividends. Don’t believe us and every other music source vehemently proclaiming Wet Leg’s status as the definitive ones to watch? Just ask Paramore’s Hayley Williams. “She DMed us and I DIED. We all just DIED,” squeaks Hester.

“It was just beyond our capabilities to think that the song would be listened to by anyone, so the fact that people are really excited has blown our minds,” she continues with a grin. “I sound so gushy, but if I told 17-year-old me that we’d be here right now she’d say, ‘No way’. But now this band is all I think about”.

I am going to wrap up now. One of 2021’s clear standouts, Wet Leg’s Chaise Longue is a song that is still being talked about! A terrifically quirky and urgent song from Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, Wet Leg are going to have a very busy and successful 2022. There are so many people wondering what is next…

FOR the incredible duo.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Bryan Adams - Waking Up the Neighbours

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

 Bryan Adams - Waking Up the Neighbours

___________

I feel Bryan Adams…

is one of those artists that gets a bit of a bad rap. Maybe he is seen as a bit reserved for a particular audience, or that his music is not that cool. I grew up listening to his music. One of my favourite albums of his, Waking Up the Neighbours, was released in 1991. My favourite track from the album, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, got to number two in the U.S. One of the issues with Waking Up the Neighbourhood was that there was some controversy in Canada concerning the system of Canadian Content. Even though Adams was one of Canada's biggest artists at the time, the specific nature of his collaboration with non-Canadians, combined with his decision to primarily record the album outside Canada, meant that the album and all its songs were not considered Canadian content for purposes of Canadian radio airplay. Even so, the album reached number one in Canada, in addition to the U.K. and other nations. I feel it is one that gets played on certain radio stations now - and yet there are many who overlook it. It is definitely worth fonder and more extensive appreciation. I want to bring in a couple of reviews. The second is positive, whereas the one here is a little more mixed:

“Although not as good as Reckless, Bryan Adams' 1991 album, Waking up the Neighbours, signaled his commercial apex. Bridging the time gap between '80s arena rock and '90s angst-ridden grunge, the album also ushered in an era in which Adams became more known for his sweeping power ballads than his straight-ahead rock tunes. This album, filled with nearly 75 minutes of showstopping arena rockers and mid-tempo ballads, churned out no less than five hit singles, the most notable being the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves theme "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You."

That ballad spent seven weeks atop the U.S. pop charts, becoming the longest-reigning American chart-topper since Prince's "When Doves Cry" seven years earlier. The song also became a phenomenon in Europe, becoming Adams' biggest hit ever. Other singles which followed included the joyous rocker "Can't Stop This Thing We Started," which became a number two hit, the mid-tempo ballads "Do I Have to Say the Words" and "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven," and the fun, straight-ahead rocker "There Will Never Be Another Tonight." Waking up the Neighbours was co-produced by Robert Jon "Mutt" Lange, and as a result, many of these songs sound as though they could have easily been Def Leppard recordings, especially "All I Want Is You," which sounds like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" part two. Nonetheless, Waking up the Neighbours is a fun album and perfect for those who expect nothing more than an old-fashioned good time from their rock & roll”.

I can see what the review says about some of the songs (on the album) sound like they were made by other artists. I think that Waking Up the Neighbours was a great follow-up to the slightly underwhelming Into the Fire. Even though the record was recorded between at a couple of studios - Battery Studios in London, and The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver – it does sound cohesive and together. Away from the string of singles from the album, many of the deeper cuts are strong and warrant a closer look.

Rolling Stone reviewed Waking Up the Neighbours when it was released in 1991. I think that their review is a little fairer when it comes to the qualities and merits of Bryan Adams’ sixth studio album:

“Waking up the Neighbours' will, with no sweat, reestablish Bryan Adams as the radio's hoarse purveyor of energy and fun. A scrupulously careful yet adamantly alive piece of work, this collaboration between the Canadian singer-guitarist and the Midas-touch songwriter-producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange alternates half-tamed sonic raunch like "Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya?" and "Hey Honey – I'm Packin' You In!" with eloquent mall ballads such as "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You," Adams's current planet-wide phenomenon, and the even moodier "Do I Have to Say the Words?" For further balance there is fairly soulful midtempo rock ("Depend on Me") and an oddly toned state-of-the-world finale called "Don't Drop That Bomb on Me."

Like most capable pop craftsmen hellbent on seizing the airwaves, Adams and Lange walk a fine line between familiarity and derivativeness, between the blazingly immediate and the outright stale. So some tunes on Waking Up the Neighbours have turned out too broad for anyone's taste. "House Arrest" doesn't convey much of the atmosphere of "justa havin' a ball," and the hectoring sing-along "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" collapses into silliness in no time flat. More often, however, all Adams and Lange's high-impact verses and choruses and bridges and subbridges work like charms. The arrangements are only faintly dressed up with well-chosen bits of keyboard and percussion, and Bob Clearmountain's mix emphasizes Adams's vocals and Keith Scott's memorable guitar hooks – not, as per current market fashion, the rhythm section.

Bryan Adams became a superstar on the basis of Reckless, from 1984, an album released just as Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. was beginning to exert its enormous influence over how guitar-defined popsters should think, sound and wear their denim. Three years later, with his dull Into the Fire, Adams let his always believable passion for melody and crunch lead him into attempts at the sort of topical, introspective songwriting that Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp sometimes can pull off. But between 1987 and right now, the Traveling Wilburys restored humor and the Black Crowes embraced vulgarity. However you may feel about this turn of events in the evolution of nonmetal, bestselling guitar pop, one thing seems certain: It's coaxed Bryan Adams back toward his natural calling”.

Adams’ fifteenth studio album, So Happy It Hurts, is out next year. Over forty years since the release of his debut album, 1980’s Bryan Adams, the Canadian legend is releasing great music still. I feel Waking Up the Neighbours ranks alongside his best albums. I don’t think that a lot of people have heard it or have spun it for a while. I really like it. Alongside the big hits like (Everything I Do) I Do It for You and All I Want Is You, there is a lot to enjoy on the 1991 smash. Waking Up the Neighbours is an album people should…

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FEATURE: Stronger: The Amazing Britney Spears at Forty: Her Greatest Tracks

FEATURE:

 

 

Stronger

The Amazing Britney Spears at Forty: Her Greatest Tracks

___________

THIS year has been…

 PHOTO CREDIT: WireImage

a real rollercoaster for Britney Spears. After being emancipated and released from a rancorous conservatorship run by her father, she is now a free artist. It has been an emotionally stressful and hard year for her. In fact, if one looks back, Spears has been controlled for so many years. Before coming to some biography, this article looks at how Spears reacted to her friend, Christina Aguilera’s reaction to Spears’ victory and freedom:

“Britney Spears has voiced her upset after Christina Aguilera’s reaction to a question about the Piece Of Me singer’s conservatorship during a red carpet interview.

On Friday night, Britney posted footage of Christina on the red carpet of the Latin Grammys on her Instagram story, with the latter being asked by reporters: “Have you had any communication… have you guys had any communication? Have you been able to celebrate?”

As Christina looked over to her publicist, he interjected, stating: “No, we’re not doing that. Sorry. Thank you, no. Bye.”

“I can’t,” Christina then said, before adding: “But I’m happy for her!”

Reacting to the footage, Britney wrote: “I love and adore everyone who supported me… but refusing to speak when you know the truth, is equivalent to a lie!!! 13 years being in a corrupt abusive system yet why is it such a hard topic for people to talk about??? I’m the one who went through it!!! All the supporters who spoke up and supported me, thank you… yes I do matter!”

Britney then posted a clip of Lady Gaga, who was asked a similar question while promoting her new film House Of Gucci.

“The way that she was treated in this business was really wrong,” Gaga said. “The way that women are treated in the music industry is something that I wish would change. I think that she will forever be an inspiration to women”.

As the iconic and hugely inspiration Britney Spears is forty on 2nd December, I wanted to mark that with a selection of her best and biggest tracks. Prior to that – so that I can include some interviews and music videos -, here is some biography that details the life and work of one of music’s greatest Pop artists:

“Britney Spears is the defining figure of the Y2K pop era, the artist who shaped the sound and look of pop music in the first decade of the 21st century. Like Madonna before her, Spears melded her music to her image so thoroughly, it became impossible to separate the two: the title of "...Baby One More Time," her 1999 breakthrough hit, evokes the industrial Max Martin-produced hook and Spears' schoolgirl dance routine in equal measure. "...Baby One More Time" arrived in early 1999, months after the launch of MTV's Total Request Live and just as the pop charts were shaking off post-alternative doldrums in preparation for millennial bacchanalia that was just around the corner. Spears provided the soundtrack for that era as she moved from fizzy bubblegum like "(You Drive Me) Crazy" to the slinkier, sexier funk of "I'm a Slave 4 U." Hits were certainly central to Spears' appeal but she didn't reach the Billboard Top Ten with the same regularity as her fellow Mickey Mouse Club veterans Justin Timberlake, who fronted the boy band *NSYNC, and Christina Aguilera. Spears' stardom transcended the confines of the charts and even film, television, and the tabloids. Her cultural omnipresence in the 2000s elevated her to iconic status, turning her into the embodiment of all of that decade's glorious excesses. Spears' presence as a pop idol endured even after her personal problems led to her being placed in a conservatorship in 2008. In the years that followed, she continued to work, appearing as a judge on The X Factor, releasing singles that brought her back to the top of the charts and settling into a series of Las Vegas residencies.

Britney Jean Spears was born December 2, 1981, in the small town of Kentwood, Louisiana, and began singing and dancing at a young age. With a nationally televised appearance on Star Search already under her belt, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club at age eight. The producers turned her down as she was too young, but one of them took an interest and introduced her to an agent in New York. Spears spent the next three years studying at the Professional Performing Arts School, and also appeared in several television commercials and off-Broadway plays. At 11, she returned to The New Mickey Mouse Club for a second audition, and this time made the cut. Although her fellow Mouseketeers included an impressive array of future stars -- *NSYNC's Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, Christina Aguilera, and Felicity actress Keri Russell -- the show was canceled after Spears' second season. She returned to New York at age 15 and set about auditioning for pop bands and recording demo tapes, one of which eventually landed her a deal with Jive Records.

Spears entered the studio with top writer/producers like Eric Foster White (Boyzone, Whitney Houston, Backstreet Boys) and Max Martin (Ace of Base, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC). In late 1998, Jive released her debut single, the Martin-penned "...Baby One More Time." Powered by its video, in which Spears and a troupe of dancers were dressed as Catholic school jailbait, the single shot to the top of the Billboard charts. When Spears' debut album of the same title was released in early 1999, it entered the charts at number one and stayed there for six weeks. Once the ubiquitous lead single died down, the album kept spinning off hits: the Top Ten "(You Drive Me) Crazy," the near-Top 20 ballad "Sometimes," and the Top 20 "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart." By the end of 1999, ...Baby One More Time had sold ten million copies and went on to sell a good three-plus-million more on top of that. Its success touched off a wave of young pop divas who included Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore. Spears was a superstar.

By the time ...Baby One More Time finally started to lose steam on the singles and album charts, Spears was ready to release her follow-up. Oops!...I Did It Again appeared in the spring of 2000, and the title track was an instant smash, racing into the Top Ten. The album itself entered the charts at number one and sold over a million copies in its first week of release, setting a new record for single-week sales by a female artist. Follow-up singles included "Lucky," the gold-selling "Stronger," and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," which was co-written by country diva Shania Twain and her producer Mutt Lange. A year after its release, Oops!...I Did It Again had sold over nine million copies. Rumors that Spears was dating *NSYNC heartthrob (and fellow ex-Mouseketeer) Justin Timberlake were eventually confirmed, which only added to the media attention lavished upon her.

For her next album, Spears looked ahead to a not-so-distant future when both she and much of her audience would be growing up. Released in late 2001, Britney tried to present the singer as a more mature young woman, and was accompanied by mild hints that her personal life wasn't always completely puritanical. It became her third straight album to debut at number one, although this time around the singles weren't as successful; "I'm a Slave 4 U," "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," and "Overprotected" all missed the Top Ten. In early 2002, Spears' feature-film debut, Crossroads, hit theaters, but its commercial performance was somewhat disappointing; moreover, her romance with Timberlake fizzled out not long after. Spears next made a cameo appearance in Mike Myers' Austin Powers: Goldmember, and contributed a remix of "Boys" to the soundtrack. Meanwhile, sales of Britney stalled at four million copies, perhaps in part because a new breed of teenage female singer/songwriters, like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne, was emerging as an alternative to the highly packaged teen queens. Spears took a break from recording and performing for several months, and began work on a new album in early 2003. The results, In the Zone, reflected a wish to be taken seriously as a mature (though still highly sexualized) adult. Predictably, it topped the charts and launched several singles into orbit, including the musically adventurous "Toxic," "Everytime," and "Me Against the Music."

In the Zone hit number one on the Billboard 200, and "Toxic" snagged a Grammy for Best Dance Recording, but in 2004 Britney's personal life started to hit the tabloids on a regular basis. She had a brief two-day marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander, followed by the controversial Onyx Hotel tour, which was eventually canceled despite positive financial numbers. Soon, Britney revealed her relationship with her former backup dancer Kevin Federline. Spears and Federline married in September and were tabloid regulars in the months after the ceremony; some of this relationship was documented in Chaotic, a UPN reality show consisting mostly of their own home videos.

The year 2005 was no less eventful for Spears. She released Greatest Hits: My Prerogative that January, but it was the announcement of her pregnancy that really garnered the headlines. Her son Sean was born in September, and a bidding war ensued for first rights to the baby photos. As the hubbub surrounding Sean's birth continued, Britney released a remix album just in time for the holiday season. In 2006, Spears discovered she was pregnant again; shortly after the birth of her second son, Jayden, she divorced Federline. Following another headline-grabbing incident in early 2007 (in which Spears spontaneously shaved her head at a salon in Tarzana, California, much to the delight of nearby photographers), Spears sought help at Malibu's Promises Treatment Center. After leaving the facility, she began working on her comeback album and performed a few small shows at House of Blues locations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Anaheim, and Las Vegas that May. Despite ongoing turmoil in her life that summer and fall, Blackout arrived in October 2007. It proved to be her least successful album to date, charting three Top 40 hits but failing to achieve platinum certification within its first year of release.

Spears was dealt more blows in early 2008 when she lost custody of her children, made several court appearances, and was placed on involuntary psychiatric hold twice in one month. Blackout nevertheless won several MTV-sponsored awards, including Album of the Year from the Europe Music Awards in November 2008. That same fall, "Womanizer," the lead-off single from Spears' next record, became her first number one single in nearly a decade. The full-length Circus arrived in December, featuring a mix of syrupy ballads and uptempo dance numbers that were designed to fuel Spears' comeback. In 2009, the single "3" followed "Womanizer" to the top, and appeared on her career-spanning compilation The Singles Collection. In 2011, Spears returned with the studio album Femme Fatale, featuring the single "Hold It Against Me," which became her fourth single to top the Billboard Hot 100. The second single, the Ke$ha co-written "'Til the World Ends," didn't top the charts but it was a bigger hit, going double platinum in the U.S.

Britney supported Femme Fatale with an international tour that ran until the end of 2011; at the end of the year, the home video Live: The Femme Fatale Tour was released. Spears made a splashy return to television in 2012 when she signed to be one of the celebrity judges on the second season of the U.S. version of Simon Cowell's The X Factor. The show returned in the fall of 2012. Spears did not return to the show for its third season. Also in 2012, Britney appeared on will.i.am's track "Scream and Shout." This was the beginning of a greater partnership, as will.i.am wound up as the executive producer for her eighth studio album, Britney Jean. Preceded by the single "Work Bitch" -- along with a Britney cameo on Miley Cyrus' 2013 album Bangerz and the announcement of a two-year residency in Las Vegas -- Britney Jean appeared during the first week of December 2013. Although Britney Jean debuted in the Top Five on the Billboard 200, it would be her lowest-performing album to date. In the following years, she continued her Vegas residency and contributed to a pair of new tracks: "Pretty Girls" with Iggy Azalea and a cover of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" for Giorgio Moroder.

Spears released "Make Me," a midtempo track featuring rapper G-Eazy, in July 2016, with the full-length Glory appearing a month later. Glory peaked at three in the U.S., two in the U.K., and wound up generating only one other charting single, "Slumber Party," which peaked at 86. Spears supported Glory by taking her Vegas show on the road in 2017. Her Britney: Piece of Me production wrapped in Las Vegas at the end of 2017 and there were plans for another residency called Britney: Domination for February 2019, but it was canceled after her father suffered serious health problems. Spears entered an "indefinite work hiatus" that lasted into 2021, a period punctuated by a deluxe version of Glory in 2020”.

Because Spears is now, let’s hope, in a position where she can take stock and continue her career how she sees fit. I am not sure whether there will be another album in the next year or two. It would be interesting to see what Spears comes out with. She is an artist that I first heard when she put her debut album out in 1999. One of the most the most important artists of her generation, let’s all hope that Spears is happy and settled. I hope that she performs and releases music…

FOR a long time yet.

FEATURE: When All Is (Almost) Said and Done: ABBA’s The Visitors at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

When All Is (Almost) Said and Done

 ABBA’s The Visitors at Forty

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A matter of weeks after ABBA…

put out their latest album, Voyage, we are about to mark the fortieth anniversary of the album that preceded it. The Visitors was the last album from ABBA - or that was what people assumed at the time. Released on 30th November, 1981, many would have guessed, after such a gap, that the Swedish icons were not going to come back with any more music. Going out on a real high, a lot of bands do not release such fantastic music when they are near the end. ABBA were, seemingly, in peak musical condition in 1981. There were tensions between Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The couples were either divorced or finalising the process. Because of that, the music on The Visitors has a darker tone than previous ABBA work. With such emotional damage and strain within the ranks, it is amazing that The Visitors sounds so complete, worked-through and consistent. It is not like they went into the studio, recorded the songs very quickly and left it at that! Even with ABBA at the point of breaking, the production and performances are amazing. I wanted to source an article that looks into the album’s recording and the differences between The Visitors and the previous release, Super Trouper:

“On November 30, 1981, ABBA’s final studio LP, The Visitors, was released in Sweden. The album was the sound of a group coming to terms with their marital splits and the prospect of life after ABBA. In this feature we take a look at the making of the group’s most controversial piece of work.

On March 16, 1981, Björn, Benny and their four trusted backing musicians – Lasse Wellander, guitar, Rutger Gunnarsson, bass, Ola Brunkert, drums and Åke Sundqvist, percussion -– entered Polar Music Studios together with engineer Michael B. Tretow to start work on the first batch of backing tracks for ABBA’s eighth studio album. Only five months had elapsed since they completed work on their previous LP, Super Trouper, but ABBA was no longer the same group. Just four weeks before these initial recording sessions, Benny and Frida had announced their decision to go their separate ways, just like Agnetha and Björn had done in 1979. Thus, the group that had once consisted of two couples was now made up of four colleagues, sharing a sense of respect for the professional capacities of each member, but not socialising very much outside the recording studio.

Frida in the video for When All Is Said And Done. Although ABBA often wanted to avoid making their private feelings public in their music, at least in an overtly literal way, the past few years had seen a change in attitude in that respect. Two of the songs recorded during the initial sessions for the new album were certainly coloured by recent events within the group. ’When All Is Said And Done’ dealt expressly with the split between Benny and Frida, exploring the inevitability of their separation. Frida handled the lead vocals, and Björn, who wrote the lyrics, made sure that she felt okay with the subject matter. Frida assured him that she was only eager to get this chance to express her true feelings. ”All my sadness was captured in that song,” she later recalled.

But Björn didn’t stop at exploring the feelings of his fellow band members at this time, he also did some private soul-searching. The lyrics for ’Slipping Through My Fingers’, also recorded during the first sessions for the new album, pondered the conflicting feelings of parenthood. The direct inspiration was seeing his seven-year-old daughter Linda walk off to school one day. ”I thought, ’Now she has taken that step, she’s going away – what have I missed out on through all these years?’” No doubt, his feelings acquired another level of depth, considering the fact that Linda and her younger brother Christian no longer were living under one roof with both their parents. The lead vocalist on the song was, of course, Linda’s mother, Agnetha.

Kicking off the sessions with feelings of sorrow and regret certainly put its mark on much of the album. There were exceptions: the bizarre story of a man answering an ad in the personal column, placed by a girl and her mother, as depicted in ’Two For The Price Of One’, performed by Björn himself, was one. The other was ’Head Over Heels’, the story of a high-society lady dragging her exhausted husband to parties and in and out of boutiques, sung by Agnetha. Although it was eventually issued as a single, it was one of ABBA’s least successful seven-inch releases since their breakthrough, perhaps proving that the group were now only truly convincing when they explored darker territories.

One Of Us was the major hit single from The Visitors; here is Agnetha in the video.The album sleeve was photographed at the studio of artist Julius Kronberg. The first single off the album was the Agnetha-led ’One Of Us’ – ABBA’s final major worldwide hit – which dealt with a woman wishing that she could patch up a dead relationship, a divorce story that paralleled ’When All Is Said And Done’. Elsewhere on the album, darker subjects such as cold-war era threats of world destruction were explored in Agnetha’s ’Soldiers’, while the Frida-sung title track, ’The Visitors’, dealt with the fate of dissidents in the Soviet Union of the time. The closing selection, ’Like An Angel Passing Through My Room’, was a woman’s solitary musings, featuring only Frida’s voice accompanied by a very bare synthesizer arrangement. Bleak, indeed.

Sessions concluded with a mixing session for ’Soldiers’ on November 14, but by then the concept for the album had already been created. As usual, ABBA’s trusted sleeve designer, Rune Söderqvist, was the man behind the artwork. After giving the matter some thought, Rune came up with an ”angel” concept. The ”visitors” of the album title might very well be angels, he thought, and besides, the album included a track entitled ’Like An Angel Passing Through My Room’. The next step was to develop that concept into an idea for the album cover. ”I knew that the painter Julius Kronberg had painted a lot of angels in his time,” Rune recalled, ”so I located his studio – at the Skansen park [in Stockholm] – which contained several of his paintings.”

The album sleeve was photographed at the studio of artist Julius Kronberg.Together with photographer Lasse Larsson – who also shot the Super Trouper album cover –Rune Söderqvist assembled the group in the cold, unheated studio, and arranged a picture of them with a giant painting of an angel as backdrop. For the first time on an album cover, the members were depicted as separate individuals rather than a close-knit group. The physically chilly environment and the general sense of fatigue at being ABBA no doubt contributed to the mood at the photo session. ”We might not go on working with this forever,” Björn remarked at the time. ”We’ve emptied ourselves of everything we’ve got to give.” Indeed, the following year the group released only two further singles of newly recorded music before going their separate ways.

For Björn and Benny it was no longer creatively challenging to go on working within the ABBA concept. One track on The Visitors underlined their ambitions for the future: ’I Let The Music Speak’, with vocals by Frida, was structured very much like a theatrical number. Björn and Benny had long been thinking about writing a full-length musical, and during 1981 those thoughts were closer to being realised than ever before. The Visitors was released on November 30, 1981 and just two weeks later, Andersson and Ulvaeus had a meeting in Stockholm with lyricist Tim Rice – famous for his work with Andrew Lloyd Webber – discussing a potential collaboration. These initial talks eventually resulted in the musical Chess. ”If ABBA hadn’t recorded ’I Let The Music Speak’, I guess we would have used it in Chess,” Björn reflected later”.

When some bands change directions and release music that has a very different sound and feel, critics can go off them or hark back to the older days. The Visitors reached the number one spot in Sweden and the U.K. It also performed really well across Europe (hitting the top spot, among other nations, Belgium and Germany). This is what AllMusic observed in their retrospective review;

“ABBA's final album was recorded during a period of major personal shakeups, principally in the decision by Benny Andersson and Frida to follow the same route to divorce that had already been taken by Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog. Both male members of the group would soon remarry, but at the time, despite all of these changes in their circumstances, The Visitors was never intended as ABBA's swan song -- they were to go on recording together. That may explain why, rather than a threadbare, thrown-together feel, The Visitors is a beautifully made, very sophisticated album, filled with serious but never downbeat songs, all beautifully sung and showing off some of the bold songwriting efforts. The title track is a topical song about Soviet dissidents that also manages to be very catchy, while "I Let the Music Speak" sounds like a Broadway number (and a very good one, at that) in search of a musical to be part of, and "When All Is Said and Done" is a serious, achingly beautiful ballad with a lot to say about their personal situations -- even "Two for the Price of One," a lighthearted song sung by Björn Ulvaeus about answering a personal advertisement, offered several catchy hooks and beautiful backup singing. "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" ended the original album on a hauntingly ethereal note, but not as any kind of larger statement about the quartet's fate. The intention was to keep working together, but Andersson and Ulvaeus' growing involvement with their stage project, Chess, prevented any further work together by the group beyond three songs, "The Day Before You Came," "Cassandra," and "Under Attack" -- they're all present as bonus tracks on the 2001 remastered edition (in gatefold packaging), along with the orphaned B-side "Should I Laugh or Cry" from the same sessions as The Visitors, and only add to the appeal of the original album”.

Prior to wind things up, there is a Pitchfork review that I wanted to put in. I cannot find a bad review for The Visitors! It is an album that so many people have connected with:

“ABBA's music on The Visitors is more pristine and ambitious than it had ever been, its themes darker, its personal politics more tangled. Both of the band's couples had divorced, but the men were still writing lyrics for the women to sing-- meaning it's easy to see a cruel edge in tracks like "One of Us", in which a woman regrets her new independence over a typically gorgeous melody. All of this has made The Visitors a perennial critic's favorite. It's the record on which the wintry melancholy of "late ABBA"-- whose sadness had bubbled under their music almost from the start-- could finally dominate.

But things are never quite so simple. The original nine tracks that make up The Visitors are no less uneven than any ABBA full-length; in fact, the weakest songs are a snapshot of their foibles as a group. They had a long dalliance with musical theatre-- the pomp-pop fantasia "I Let the Music Speak" is their last and most bloated attempt. "Two for the Price of One"-- a hokey story of a failed threesome-- calls back to their earliest, goofiest records. "Slipping Through My Fingers", about the impotence of watching your kids grow up, is a great example of how the group had come to pitch records at adults, but in execution it's pure schmaltz.

The highs, though, are astonishing. The title track is a snapshot of life in a totalitarian state, full of justified paranoia and exhausted fatalism: "I hear the doorbell ring" it begins matter-of-factly "and suddenly the panic takes me." The music lurches between seasick synth-pop and nervous disco flourishes, with Frida Lyngstad's raga-infuenced vocals rolling uneasily on top. It's five years and a musical lifetime since this band sung "Dum Dum Diddle", but for all its distance from ABBA's traditional sound, "The Visitors" never gives up on catchiness. This is grown-up, risk-taking pop, but always pop nonetheless”.

Forty years after the release of The Visitors, we still do not know whether ABBA will record any further music, or whether they have ended things with Voyage. I guess many people felt that back in 1981. It goes to show, when it comes to the Swedish band, you can never predict…

WHAT they will do next.

FEATURE: Ripe Fruit on the July Tree: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and an Incredible Soundtrack

FEATURE:

 

 

Ripe Fruit on the July Tree

 Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and an Incredible Soundtrack

                                                                                  ___________

EVEN though it has been out for…

a little bit now, I wanted to discuss the new film from Paul Thomas Anderson. Licorice Pizza, I think, refers to a vinyl record. There is a record shop in the U.S. called Licorice Pizza, so I wonder whether Anderson got the title from that. With the likes of Sean Penn and Tom Waits featuring in the film (which features Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in the lead roles), I especially love the soundtrack and the songs featured. The plot is this: In 1973 San Fernando Valley, teenager Gary Valentine meets Alana Kane, a photographer's assistant in her 20s, at his high school on picture day. They become friends, start a waterbed company together, audition for films, and get involved with Joel Wachs' mayoral campaign. They navigate a changing time politically and culturally while also dealing with a gas crisis. Valentine and Kane's journey leads to them interacting with figures of both Old and New Hollywood, including Jon Peters and Jack Holden. The film was released on 26th November in the U.S. It has already received some hugely positive reviews. I will come to a couple of them, as it gives context to the film and the songs included. You can buy the soundtrack here. Early this month, Pitchfork announced details of the soundtrack:

“Republic Records has revealed the tracklist and release date for the Licorice Pizza soundtrack. The album features songs by David Bowie, Nina Simone, and Paul McCartney and Wings, Donovan, Sonny & Cher, Gordon Lightfoot, and more. Additionally, it features the new song “Licorice Pizza,” made by frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood. Find the tracklist for the Licorice Pizza soundtrack below.

Licorice Pizza (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out November 26. The movie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s first since Phantom Thread, hits theaters on Christmas Day. Licorice Pizza is set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973 and stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, as well as Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie”

Given the name of the film, I think that is why Anderson’s musical choices are especially considered. Featuring tracks such as David Bowie’s Life on Mars?, Sonny & Cher’s But You're Mine, and Nina Simone’s July Tree, there is a bounty of fascinating and eclectic songs. I guess one needs to see the film to understand how the music pairs with various scenes, though I have been compelled to watch the film and seek it out on the strength of the soundtrack. Before talking more about it, here are a couple of reviews for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film. This is The A.V. Club’s reaction:

“The spark is lit in the opening scene, as 15-year-old child actor Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of Anderson’s late muse, Philip Seymour Hoffman) first lays eyes on 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim, one of the three sisters of the rock band Haim) outside a photo studio. He’s a teenager and she’s not—a fact she repeats repeatedly, if only to remind herself—but there’s an undeniable chemistry detectable in the spaces between her jabs and amused rebukes. “I met the girl I’m going to marry one day,” waxes the teen to his kid brother later that night. We wonder if he’s right.

One might think of that other Anderson. There is, after all, a touch of Max Fischer in Gary, who’s pantomiming a life of adult sophistication and privilege—ordering Coca-Colas in his white suit at nightclubs, flanked by an entourage of comically pubescent friends. Gary, we learn, is rapidly aging out of whatever modest celebrity he’s achieved; his career is over before it’s begun. Yet he has the swagger of a young Hollywood somebody. And though Alana, who works at the photo studio, talks to him like the kid brother she never had (she actually has two sisters, played by Haim’s real sisters and bandmates), she’s plainly attracted, at the very least, to his proximity to fame. And so she’s pulled into the orbit of his teenage hustles, and even ends up working for him, an arrangement that echoes the thrust of Phantom Thread.

The plot is a crazy-quilt time capsule, pulling in the waterbed craze, the oil embargo of ’73, the pinball ban, a tight L.A. political race, and the amorous shit-kicking of New Hollywood. Anderson’s structure is borderline associative, his screenplay daisy-chaining the ephemera that may well have colored his own childhood in the Valley. Early on, the director—who shot the movie himself, with an assist from Michael Bauman—tracks his camera across the floor of a teen business expo, soaking in every gleaming shag detail of his early-’70s production design. In its loving mirage of a bygone Los Angeles, Licorice Pizza is like a gemini twin to Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, the last movie from fellow ’90s hotshot turned indiewood royalty Quentin Tarantino.

The cast is stacked with familiar faces and scions, the fathers of famous men and the daughters of famous directors, brought in for walk-ons or to steal a single scene. We get Sean Penn, skin rough like leather, as an aging man’s man who’s William Holden in all but Christian name. Elsewhere, Anderson doesn’t even bother to slightly rename his supporting players from history, casting Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie as the closeted L.A. politician Joel Wachs. And the film’s extended comic highlight involves the famed producer Jon Peters, pricelessly played by Bradley Cooper as a rich-dick lothario teetering, in his unfiltered asides, on the edge of danger; a waterbed installation at his swanky house in the hills becomes a gauntlet of close calls and mishaps, culminating with a van rolling perilously through traffic.

It’s a great scene. And there are plenty more, especially in the freewheeling first hour of the movie, animated by the electric currents of Gary’s and Alana’s dovetailing experiences. Yet as a story, Licorice Pizza barely hangs together. Anderson, high on his own nostalgic supply (and on the FM reverie of his all-star soundtrack of Doors, Donovan, and more), stumbles through an endless series of oddball peripheral characters and comic situations, some funnier than others. (There’s one strange recurring bit with John Michael Higgins as a restaurateur doing an outrageous Japanese accent that feels like it could have been plucked out of a bad ’70s comedy.) The director has made a blissed-out flashback portrait of his hometown that’s all incident, very little shape. He’s just riffing here, to sporadically satisfying effect”.

I will include one more review. I am interested in the various takes critics have had. As this review details, Anderson was very committed to authenticity when it came to the feel of the film – ensuring that, right down to the camera lenses, there was this sense of being right in the 1970s:

“Working as his own cinematographer, Anderson reportedly used camera lenses that Gordon Willis (cinematographer of The Godfather) had back in the 1970s. They give the entire film a slight softness that reminds you of Bad News Bears, Meatballs and Little Darlings, an almost subliminal callback to an era and a style that’s long gone but many viewers instinctually remember, whether on celluloid or in real life. There’s a sequence in this film with a moving truck as it navigates canyon roads that feels like William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, but more tense because a couple of teenagers are behind the wheel.

But he utilizes these set pieces to highlight how young lovers — even ones resisting inevitable attraction — become bonded through acts of adversity, such as a run-in with the law, or in other cases see their life and their choices in relief with the momentary fun they might share. Whether or not Gary and Alana are healthy together, they are right for each other, providing what they can’t get anywhere from anyone else, even if they might never possess the language (much less self-awareness) to say what that is out loud.

Ultimately, if its title fails to fully or precisely capture the energy of the film (except as another reference to a San Fernando institution only a handful of privileged individuals will recognize), the director's latest is nevertheless an invigorating delight; lived in and yet spontaneous; thrilling but also gorgeously understated.

Like a number of Anderson's earlier works, Licorice Pizza is as in love with the medium in which it was made as the story and characters within it. Even if its throwback cinematic style proves to be slightly too eccentric for your tastes, if there’s one thing Paul Thomas Anderson has demonstrated that he’s capable of it’s he can tell a love story you will absolutely believe in, whether or not you personally want to be a part of it”.

Because of the setting, you get this soundtrack with amazing songs from that decade (and tracks that are outside of the 1970s). I love how there is an inclusion of Henry VIII’s Greensleeves. Not many soundtracks can go from that to Donovan’s Barabajagal! Maybe the best soundtrack of the year, I think that the film and album will introduce a lot of younger listeners to some of the tracks from the 1970s. Although not every cut from the soundtrack features in the film, you will get a good taste of what is featured in the film. With The Doors sitting alongside Gordon Lightfoot, I wonder how highly we regard film soundtracks. They can obviously enhance a film and give it new context and layers. Whether you hear the Licorice Pizza soundtrack solo or watch the film and then go and hear the album, I think that a great soundtrack can do so much more than accompany a film’s release. We do have compilation albums still but, at a time when so many of us are making our own playlists and most albums are studio releases, a soundtrack is a preservation of the past. With the ability to cast his net far and wide, Anderson and those responsible for compiling the songs and deciding what was included had a hard choice. Looking down the tracklisting, and Licorice Pizza’s soundtrack ranks alongside the very best from the past few years. As I said, it has intrigued me enough to want to see the film, just to see where the songs fit in and how they score particular moments. Even if you plan on seeing the film or not, the soundtrack for Licorice Pizza is…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc./MGM

A must-own for all music fans.

FEATURE: She Packed My Bags Last Night Pre-Flight: Kate Bush's Reading of Elton John’s Rocket Man at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

She Packed My Bags Last Night Pre-Flight

Kate Bush’s Reading of Elton John’s Rocket Man at Thirty

___________

I have talked about…

this song before but, as it turns thirty on 2nd December (though some sources say 25th November), I wanted to return to Kate Bush’s version of Rocket Man. I have heard other female singers cover Elton John’s 1972 classic. I feel Bush’s 1991 rendition (for the album, Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin), was one of the first. It is no surprise that Bush chose this song to record (the B-side of the single was another Elton John song, Candle in the Wind). Not only did it give her a chance to role-reverse and put a different spin on another song. Her arrangement gives the song new angles, depth and resonance. I love the Elton John original, though Bush’s more Reggae/Calypso version is beautiful! The addition of Davy Spillane’s uilleann pipes gives the song a nice Irish flavour. Whilst not as atmospheric and epic as John’s rendition, Bush adds jauntiness and lightness to the track. Ahead of its thirtieth on 2nd December, I would advise those who have not heard the song to dig it out. Before going on, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provide information about the song. Hearing Bush’s reasons behind covering this particular song are interesting. The Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin album was a variety of acts picking a John/Taupin song to cover. Bush’s Rocket Man, to me, is the highlight of the album:

“I was really knocked out to be asked to be involved with this project, because I was such a big fan of Elton's when I was little. I really loved his stuff. It's like he's my biggest hero, really. And when I was just starting to write songs, he was the only songwriter I knew of that played the piano and sang and wrote songs. So he was very much my idol, and one of my favourite songs of his was 'Rocket Man'. Now, if I had known then that I would have been asked to be involved in this project, I would have just died… They basically said, 'Would we like to be involved?' I could choose which track I wanted…

'Rocket Man' was my favourite. And I hoped it hadn't gone, actually – I hoped no one else was going to do it… I actually haven't heard the original for a very long time. 'A long, long time' (laughs). It was just that I wanted to do it differently. I do think that if you cover records, you should try and make them different. It's like remaking movies: you've got to try and give it something that makes it worth re-releasing. And the reggae treatment just seemed to happen, really. I just tried to put the chords together on the piano, and it just seemed to want to take off in the choruses. So we gave it the reggae treatment. It's even more extraordinary (that the song was a hit) because we actually recorded the track over two years ago. Probably just after my last telly appearance. We were quite astounded when they wanted to release it as a single just recently. (BBC Radio 1 interview, 14 December 1991)

I remember buying this when it came out as a single by Elton John. I couldn’t stop playing it - I loved it so much. Most artists in the mid seventies played guitar but Elton played piano and I dreamed of being able to play like him. Years later in 1989, Elton and Bernie Taupin were putting together an album called Two Rooms, which was a collection of cover versions of their songs, each featuring a different singer. To my delight they asked me to be involved and I chose Rocket Man. They gave me complete creative control and although it was a bit daunting to be let loose on one of my favourite tracks ever, it was really exciting. I wanted to make it different from the original and thought it could be fun to turn it into a reggae version. It meant a great deal to me that they chose it to be the first single release from the album.

That meant I also had the chance to direct the video which I loved doing - making it a performance video, shot on black and white film, featuring all the musicians and... the Moon!

Alan Murphy played guitars on the track. He was a truly special musician and a very dear friend. Tragically, he died just before we made the video so he wasn’t able to be there with us but you’ll see his guitar was placed on an empty chair to show he was there in spirit. (KateBush.com, February 2019)”.

One of the great aspects of Kate Bush’s career is her cover versions. An artist who took from a wide spectrum of the musical landscape, she has reinterpreted songs from Elton John, George and Ira Gershwin and Donavon. She also provided her take on traditional songs. I feel this not only made her stronger and more curious as a songwriter. It also showed new sides to her voice. On Rocket Man, we hear emotions and colours that were not present on her 1989 album, The Sensual World. On 1993’s The Red Shoes, I feel her covering Rocket Man led to some revelations and new vocal tones. Eat the Music and Rubberband Girl, I feel, can be traced back to Rocket Man. Reaching number two in Australia (a country that has always supported and loved Kate Bush), and number twelve in the U.K., the public threw their weight behind the song. There has been some division in the music press as to whether Bush’s Rocket Man ranks alongside the best cover versions or the worse. I think it is a great version, and it is a shame she has not taken on more Elton John songs. I could see her doing marvellous versions of Madman Across the Water, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Song for Guy, I’m Still Standing or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. She has a great affection for John (he was a featured vocalist on Snowed in at Wheeler Street from Bush’s 2011 album, 50 Words for Snow). Kate Bush’s respectful, inventive, passionate and interesting version of Rocket Man is…

ONE of her greatest moments.

FEATURE: Revisiting... Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting...

 Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?

___________

IN the next part…

of this feature, I am looking at an underrated album from 2018. The aim of Revisiting… is to explore albums released over the past few years that are either not played that much or are timely now. I do Second Spin: this is a feature that evaluates albums from any time that are under-played and under-appreciated. Today, one of last year’s best albums is in my thoughts. Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? got some huge reviews. She recently recorded a song with Kylie Minogue, Kiss of Life. Ware is hitting the road after a long time away from the spotlight. Creating music that needs to be heard from the stage, I spent some time with her fourth studio album when it was released. Aside from recommending people get the album on vinyl, I am going to put in a couple of reviews for What’s Your Pleasure? Before that, I wanted to explore a couple of interviews where Jessie Ware talked about the album. Very different from her 2017 album, Glasshouse, What’s Your Pleasure? was one of the most important releases of 2020. A hugely enjoyable and impressive album, I think that it is Ware’s best work. The reason for including it here is that the album does not get a lot of coverage at the moment. It got love last year and was widely shared, though I think What’s Your Pleasure? is a record that deserves more time and focus now.

Ware spoke with Under the Radar about an album that was like a new phase for her. You get this sense of someone who has been rejuvenated and reconnected with her love of music:

“I’ve said it before but it made me feel like a new artist again,” Ware says of the reaction, speaking from her study in London on a dreary winter’s evening. “As an artist who’s on their fourth album and as a 35-year-old woman in music, the buzz starts to dwindle,” she adds. “It felt like this new injection that was really amazing, especially because it was fully on my terms.”

When Ware first emerged in the early 2010s, her debut album Devotion found a sweet spot between critical acclaim and commercial accessibility—cool enough to be nominated for the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize while also securing recognition from the pop-focused BRIT Awards. However, that balancing act proved hard to maintain and by her third album (the underrated Glasshouse), she found herself losing favor with both critics and the record-buying public. Her response, in her words, was to lock herself away from her label and to tune out the “noise” from the music industry. What’s Your Pleasure?, produced with musician and friend James Ford, was to be a record for her—a committed exploration of a love of dance music that had long been present in the background of her career.

Ware says the album was produced in almost complete contrast with the nights of excess and romance portrayed in its songs. “It was James and I very much on a 10-4 basis—we both have families so we’d dip into the studio and work in the daytime,” she says. There, they dreamed up escapist fantasies inspired by the queer dancefloors of ’80s New York, the camp disco of Fern Kinney, and the effortless cool of Róisín Murphy. When the album was finally released in the middle of a pandemic, its timing was a mixed blessing—appearing at a time when most dancefloors around the world were closed but in the middle of a surprise disco revival.

Ware describes the similarities between her record and those by pop heavyweights like Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga as “weird serendipity” rather than a planned approach. “It did kind of feel like we were all huddled in a boardroom meeting talking about each other like ‘she’ll take a more French disco-house approach…,’” she jokes. “I wish that had been the case because I would have been in a room with Lady Gaga and Róisín and Dua and Kylie [Minogue].” In fact, Ware admits that she even considered trying to get Minogue on the album’s sultry title track. “Kylie has those moments like ‘Slow’ and ‘Confide In Me’ where you just want to make love to her…she just oozes that sex,” she says, adding that the two of them have discussed the possibility of recording a new song together.

The current state of the music industry may be deeply uncertain at the moment—with scaled back release schedules as labels wait for a more opportune environment for new albums—but Ware suggests that her fans may be hearing from her again sooner rather than later. The six months following the release of What’s Your Pleasure? would have been spent on tour in normal circumstances. Instead, Ware has had time to consider a follow-up. She describes the new album, which is apparently halfway done, in vague terms—“more live,” “upbeat,” “more pace”—and notes that many of the same collaborators have returned, including Ford, Metronomy’s Joe Mount, and songwriters Alexandra Govere and Daniel Parker.

“What’s Your Pleasure? awakened a confidence which has been so incredible for me as a songwriter and an artist and a mother and a woman and all of that,” Ware says. “I think we can keep on going and the fact that we’ve been having to do the majority of sessions over Zoom and it’s working—that’s really interesting”.

I was interested to discover why What’s Your Pleasure? was such a shift for Ware. Exploring Disco and Dance in such a vivid and varied way was not something we had heard before from her. It was almost like Ware returned to the start of her career. Bold and enormously memorable, Ware spoke with Elle last year:

“Why this album, and why now?

I needed to kickstart a love affair with music [again]. I came off tour and thought, “I need something more in my live shows.” I needed to listen to my fans. I’d made this slow, confessional record, but maybe people wanted something else from me. And that’s fine! I wanted to do that too. I needed to do something different, to test myself. And I needed to enjoy making the music again.

How did you find that pleasure again?

It was about being with the right people and departing from the wrong people. I never knew how much management could change your life. I’d lost my confidence, and I didn’t understand it because my podcast [Table Manners] was taking off and people were really buying into this thing that was a pure accident. I was losing my voice. This is not me saying I don’t believe in the last two records, but I was seeking approval from people whose opinions I didn’t value. It became this imbalance that wasn’t right and wasn’t nurturing and wasn’t good for me.

I’m the breadwinner. I was getting to the point where music was having to be like bread and butter [and] I was going to potentially have to make decisions I didn’t wanna make, which would jeopardize and discredit both the music I was making and my artistry. Everything had to implode a little bit for it all to work out. With this record [it was all about] new management, a new label, one executive producer, a very small amount of people working on it, and intimacy. I needed everything to feel less intimidating and pressurized.

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It’s been fascinating to watch you intentionally untether yourself from the traditional “album, rest, album, rest” cycle when you started releasing one-off singles last year. How did that rollout change your mind about music as a passion again?

Subconsciously, it was a way of testing the waters to see if people were gonna dig this direction. I enjoyed that freedom of being like, “Here’s a song, I hope you like it. If you don’t, it doesn’t fucking matter, because I’ve got some more tunes.” I also knew that I was gonna have a baby, so I didn’t want to have to “hide myself away as a pregnant woman.” It felt ridiculous. So I was just like, “Right, more music, here you go.”

The former president of Virgin, Ted Cockle, said, “The world has changed since you put your last record out. You’re making dance music—that’s what you want to make. Put it out like a DJ. People don’t care about this big buildup for an album anymore. They just wanna fucking hear your music!”

Was part of the fun of making this record a result of you setting your own expectations for once?

I didn’t want people telling me what they thought. I wanted to know what I felt—and much respect to my label for letting me do that and not being overbearing. I think they knew I needed to get back into the groove of enjoying myself, to take some ownership and control back. I didn’t know how much I needed it until I was doing it. I realized I was making this amazing music nobody knew about! At the time, I was presenting Later… with Jools Holland. Everyone thought, “Oh, so she’s gone from podcasting to presenting a music show…what is going on? I hope Jessie’s ok!” And I’m like, “I’ve got this diamond record happening! This is fun!”

What feels different for you now?

I feel like a new artist again. There’s a real demand and interest in this record, which I haven’t felt since the first. Maybe because people have bought into the podcast, they feel like they wanna hear what I’ve got to say, even though they can hear it every bloody week. [Laughs] I feel like I’m getting opportunities I never would’ve gotten if the podcast hadn’t happened, like the TV shows I’m getting booked on. The confidence I’m showing in the delivery of these things, I feel like I’ve really grown. I’m proud of myself.

That confidence feels so apparent, especially in watching you pepper your performances with choreography all of a sudden.

I would never have done that! I got so tired of apologizing for being in the room. It wears you down and you believe you don’t deserve to be there. I finally feel like I do deserve to be there. I suit being a 35-year-old woman. I feel comfortable in my skin and with the music I’m making. I don’t want to complain because I know lots of people don’t get to a fourth album. I know I’ve got so much to appreciate. I just got disillusioned. I’ve always been in my own lane, musically, but people wanted me to get into the commercial lane, which I don’t think suits me. I made this record out of feeling and groove instead.

Has your relationship with “up tempo” songs changed?

I wanted to do a record that was driven by music and less by lyrics. The lyrics are always important, but it was very much about a beat dictating where we went. It felt fun and freeing. You’d be like, “How’re we going to navigate a Jessie Ware song around this beat?” I liked the challenge”.

To round off, I wanted to highlight some reviews. There are more than enough positive reviews to choose from. I am going to start with NME’s take on What’s Your Pleasure?

“But on her fourth album – ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ – Ware rediscovers her strut, on a record filled with euphoric disco, funk and groove. Produced by Simian Mobile Disco‘s James Ford, Ware also assembled a crack team of co-writers and collaborators including synth-pop extraordinaire Kindness, trendy composer Jules Buckley (who did the orchestral arrangements and strings) and Metronomy‘s Joseph Mount. The result is a collection of exhilarating floor-fillers that fuse future-facing production with heady ‘80s sounds.

‘Ooh La La’ – with its swaggering bassline and flirty lyrics – is a slinky slice of filthy funk, and ‘In Your Eyes’ a woozy amalgam of rippling synths and smoky strings. ‘Step Into My Life’ meanwhile is a shimmering, new-wave laced smasher that evokes images of the New York disco scene. Despite borrowing heavily from the past, there’s an element of timelessness that threads through the album, particularly on songs like ‘Mirage’ (a tropical treat that borrows from Bananarama, and wouldn’t feel out of place on Robyn‘s ‘Honey’) and ‘Soul Control’ (an effervescent radio ready hit that could easily fit on Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’). And although there are a few lulling moments (the icy ‘The Kill’, minimalistic ‘Adore You’), for the most part ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ is filled with nostalgia-laced treats.

An intoxicating cocktail of seductive beats, exhilarating choruses and sleek production, ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’ is pure escapism. Moving away from the wistful melancholy that permeated her last record, here Jessie Ware takes to the dancefloor – and you’ll want to join her”.

To round off, Pitchfork posted a glowing review of an amazing album. I have been listening to it ever since it was released. I d hope that Jessie Ware continues along the same Disco lines that we heard on her current record:

“On her new album, Jessie Ware sounds like the host of the kind of party you heard about in ‘70s Manhattan—velvet banquettes and powdery surfaces, mink coats and cigarette holders, and club names that were enigmatic numbers, or—post-gay liberation and pre-AIDS—sincerely promised sanctuary, paradise. You can imagine Ware taking a scene newcomer under her wing, detailing the venue’s clandestine corners, advising which watered-down liquor to avoid—and anyway, don’t you deserve champagne?

Disco has been a shared obsession of late for both chart juggernauts and Ware’s own peers, but her reverence for the era may be the most literal, down to her flash-lit portrait on the album cover, the spitting image of Warhol’s iconic polaroid of Bianca Jagger. Here, Ware is a lycanthropic party girl, coming alive under the mirrorball with breathy flirtations over disco-funk and vibrant Hi-NRG, recreated deftly by chief producer James Ford. Her wonderland is, to quote Fran Leibowitz’s one-time description of Studio 54, made for “sex and dancing.” (Ware says as much of the record herself.)

Over the Italo disco daydream of a title track, Ware presents a dessert trolley of options for, ahem, “dancing sideways.” “Come on now push/Press/More/Less,” she sighs over neon-streaked synths. “Step Into My Life,” co-produced by Ford and Kindness, is a masterclass of orchestral funk, with Ware insisting “I don’t wanna talk, no conversation.” “Save A Kiss,” an outlier, extends the album’s palette to kinetic electropop, which Ware’s voice floods with romantic yearning.

In a recent interview, Ware described What’s Your Pleasure? as a celebration of her flourishing confidence. It has less of the soul-searching of Ware’s previous album Glasshouse, yet zooms in on a lighter facet of her personality, and is threaded with a camp sense of humor that reflects disco’s frivolity as well as the cheekiness that is all over Ware’s Table Manners podcast but has been largely missing from her recorded music. Her airy vocals feel like secrets whispered, confidences offered, recalling Diana Ross’s supple quiver over Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards’ beats and, in “Mirage (Don’t Stop),” coming close to Donna Summer’s orgasmic rapture. The strutting chorus of “Read My Lips” doubles down on the song’s oral innuendo with kissy sound effects, bringing to mind Anita Ward’s disco classic “Ring My Bell.” The rubberized bass jam “Ooh La La” is a riot of saucy ad libs and tooting car horns, and the frothy, Jellybean-esque “Soul Control” centers on the delightful frippery “We touch and it feels like: Woo!” It is a joy to hear Ware sounding so relaxed.

Disco music never liked to consider what happens when the music stops, but Ware allows a little of her signature psychodrama to creep into the nocturnal escapades she describes, and the flecks of ennui make the highs even higher. Over the darkly pulsing synths of “In Your Eyes,” Ware is racked with insecurities. “Would you follow me, with no guarantee?” she asks, before allowing herself a rare belting vocal. “Adore You,” produced by Metronomy’s Joseph Mount, commits what on paper might seem like a cardinal sin: it Auto-Tunes Ware’s pristine voice to a robotic murmur, the kind that could soundtrack a lonely android searching the cosmos. But her intonations (“Lean in...move slow”; “don’t go”) reshape the song’s mood with every syllable, in a nuance that makes the smallest shifts feel seismic”.

An incredible album from last year, I think we should all revisit What’s Your Pleasure? It is such a rich and satisfying experience. You can put it on at any time and feel uplifted and improved. That is testament to the passion and commitment that Ware displays throughout. If you have not spun What’s Your Pleasure? for a while, then I think now is a good time…

TO play it again.