“I need the stars to judge my every move” Rockferry
From the very off when the deep, melodic piano notes start on Track 1 – the title track -you are instantly transported to the mid-to-late 60’s and the voice matches, I guess she’ll always be tagged with this but then the black & white video and the matching CD cover [blonde back combed hair and heavy black eye liner] seal it. Let’s hope it means she hasn’t got a limited career. You cannot fault this as a retro track from the drumming, the guitar bridge and the strings, you could easily play it to someone saying it was recorded in 1967. It’s the voice that makes you believe it. It’s not the punchiest of title tracks but it certainly gets your attention.
The retro continues a little with Warwick Avenue with it’s simply melody. It definitely stays in your mind with it’s haunting ‘I’m leaving’ lyrics. Strings come into play again on this track to great effect. “I’m an accessory that suits your new suede boots” sung on track 3, Serious which projects us forward a little. I zoned out a bit from this but it’s a passable song.
Back to retro with Stepping Stone who’s backing gives it a Bacharach ‘Walk On By’ feeling.
If you were to put a different voice to these tracks it simply would not work, her voice is perfect for the material. She sings instead of shouts, makes each word shine rather than over-holding with long notes. All that the voice can be is in track 5, Syrup & Honey. A pleading song with just an accompanying guitar. It’s well produced making her voice the centre of the album, none of it lost with high volume backing from either instruments or backing vocals.
Then Mercy appears which really does stand out from the other 10 tracks in both temp and brilliance. I just love this unique track which I hope becomes the classic it deserves, there is real ‘get down’ in this song. Flawless and she has fun with it, you can visualise the ‘go-go’ girls in the background. A well deserved Number 1.
Track 8, Delayed Devotion is the one filler track which you can easily drift away from. In fact, not sure if it’s because they follow Mercy but the remaining 3 tracks do not live up to the initial promise of the album. Would not write them off completely and she sings them well but it makes the collection run out of steam. Overall not a bad debut album.
Let’s not categorise this as pop, it is soul!