"Even When You Play It As You Like It"

Siobhan Donaghy: 

Revolution In Me

A little over a decade ago, the Sugababes' first departure resurfaced with her solo debut. It's an interesting album considering when, how and why it was made. 

In a recent interview, Siobhan has suggested that the reason she (and possibly Mutya Buena as well) recorded solo records after leaving the Sugababes was due to not being able to do anything else. The genesis of the group and the recording of One Touch essentially displaced their education. In fact, One Touch was high school for them!  

Revolution In Me could then be considered Siobhan's uni/college years. It certainly feels rooted in the growing pains of young adulthood. In many ways this record is the successor to One Touch. It is very tempting and a little unfair to see it this way but in hindsight, the lineage is clear. Cameron McVeigh served as executive producer for both records, providing creative continuity with the first line-up of the Sugababes. What Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan learned about making music, they learned form him. So many songs on Revolution in Me feel reminiscent of the Sugababes. One hears a similarity to Mutya in Siobhan's lower register. One expects Keisha to float in with  her heavenly ad-libs and high notes. None of this is to say that Siobhan's voice is in any way inadequate. Here, she demonstrates her ability to carry an album by herself. Later on with Ghosts she took her talents even further. It's merely that the connections to her past are so strong, they cannot be ignored.

The main theme of this album seems to be young adulthood and emerging identities. The navel-gazing of adolescence gives way to a greater perspective. Revolution in Me's first single Overrated is an overcast, guitar-driven song about wanting to come out of depression. Twist of Fate, the second single, is less a break-up song and more an expression of disappointment. Iodine, my favourite song on the album, would have been Siobhan's Christmas single. It's a rootsy earthy song that skirts political themes and evokes animal farming  to forment a sense of doom. Man Without Friends continues with the rootsy feel but adds a bit of bounce. As You Like It is quite possibly the most Sugababes-y song on the album: a mid-tempo urban pop song with a dark tone. The vocals combine high and low notes in a similar way to what you'll hear on Overload. Another song which recalls the Sugababes is a B-side, Those Anythings, very relaxed and jazzy track that would fit into the score of any film-noir. XY is a more quirky, left-field song inspired by human genetics. Faces is a more laid-back built around a steel drum melody. Little bits is one of the more stygian songs on Revolution in Me. It describes a sort of descent, into what is left to the interpretation of the listener. I would say it describes a toxic relationship, the kind it's all to easy to slip into when one is young.

The early 2000s were a very odd time and this rather odd album fits in with my recollection of those years. Revolution in Me is eclectic and throbbing with sad restlessness. A worthy follow-up to One Touch, it introduces us to Siobhan as a solo artist in her own right.

EBTG Unplugged.

Everything But the Girl: Acoustic 

This is one of the most pleasant albums to listen to from start to finish. The tracks are all live performances and one can hear audible applause at various points. Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn prove two things here: their merit as performers, their talent as songwriters.


The covers are all lovely and more importantly imprinted as Everything but the Girl songs. The Idol franchise always hammered in the concept of making the songs your own, but here EBTG. Of the five covers of this album, one stands out for me in particular. Time after Time, one of the most relentlessly covered pop standards of all time, is simply magical here. Ben and Tracy sound amazing together and it shows that they've been singing together for most of their lives. Come on Home sways with warmth and sensuality.

The stripped down version of  Driving is the only one I listen to anymore, it's that perfect. Apron Strings also benefits from being simplified. The acoustic version is more crystalline and the addition of a harmony renders the song magical. Fascination gets the most applause before silencing its audience with Tracey's intimate vocals. It is an incredible closer for an album that displays such emotional range for a quiet acoustic album.

There's just something about the acoustic set. Video sharing sites are full of them. Established stars and emerging artists alike use them to showcase their talents. They offer recording artists a chance to prove their mettle away from the cocoon of the studio. With this 1992 release, Everything but the Girl showed off their considerable skills and left us with something truly special.

"Is That What You Wanted to See?"

Everything 

But the Girl:

Amplified Heart 

This album is known for one thing more than anything else and I'll get to that thing in good time but I have to start this review with a pet peeve of mine. It annoys me to no end when recording artists put out records that amount to singles and filler. It's insulting when I put more thought into my bedtime playlist than a singer or band's team puts into their album. While I understand that this sort of thing is generally a result of the creativity vs. business cage-match,  it still sucks.

Which brings me to Amplified Heart. Everything but the Girl are every inch the album artist. Their records are truly coherent bodies of work that hold together nicely.  A mostly acoustic album, Amplified Heart features some of the best songwriting I've ever come across in my life. It is, of course, the album which yielded the duo's biggest hit. But that signature song is often remembered in isolation from the LP it was born into. I find that there is much more to it when considered alongside its siblings.

Rollercoaster opens the album with a languid and very British take on bossa-nova. The 'other' single from Amplified Heart, it's one of my favourite songs from EBTG. It sets the tone for the rest of the album with its combination of wistfulness and  longing. Troubled Mind is a jaunty mid-tempo ballad with some jazz guitar popping in towards the end. It speaks about the inscrutability of other people. This desire to get inside the head of another and the anguish at not being able to recurs throughout Amplified Heart.

I Don't Understand Anything  carries us into EBTG's trademark melancholy. Much slower and more deliberate than the previous two tracks, the song delivers a great deal of pathos. Walking to You  is a duet with Ben and Tracy singing either side of a bittersweet reunion between two exes. Get Me wonders aloud about ever being understood, its mercurial lyrics going nicely with a brooding cello.

Missing is the song that EBTG are known for. In terms of commercial success, it eclipses everything else that they have done. One can speculate why "Missing" blew up the way it did, or why it was this song and not, say, "Driving". But I, personally, am not qualified to know what made it happen. I will say that it's the acoustic, album version of the track that I fell in love with and listened to endlessly through high school. The complicated guitar riffs, the dramatic strings and the ever so slight bounce of the bass guitar all adding up to a plaintive account of loss and longing. "Missing" fits perfectly at the centre of Amplified Heart.

Two Star gives us one of the more complex entries on this record. It narrates someone who can't resist commenting on another person's relationship. It's a wince-inducing character-study brimming with resentment and bitterness. We Walk the Same Line is a more rootsy song about adversity and difficulty. It takes the perspective of one person reassuring another that they are not alone in going through tough times. The lyrics are especially resonant for me given some  of the things I've been through since the first time I listened to this song. 25th of December sees Ben Watt takes lead vocals on a simply arranged number with a haunting refrain.  Disenchanted is a quietly low-key closer which seems to sum up the experience of Amplified Heart. Tracy Thorn's intimate vocals deliver contemplative lyrics in the second person. A saxophone takes on the role of a duet partner adding a level of sophistication and wistfulness to the track.

Amplified Heart to me represents Everything but the Girl at their apex. Obviously the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing" took over the world for a year and a half but the real triumph in my view, is the creative accomplishment represented by Amplified Heart. It is no less than one of the most beautiful  albums I have ever listened to. Pop music that is truly mature is hard to come by. These songs touched me deeply when I was young and they still work for me to this day. 

"Some days I think I could go insane..."

Everything But

The Girl:

Walking Wounded

If one record defines my adolescence, it's this one. Walking Wounded is one of my essential albums and literally chronicles my life in the mid-90's. Released a the year after their hit Missing took over the world, Walking Wounded signalled a shift in the duo's sound from the mostly acoustic Amplified Heart to a more electronic sensibility.  What did not change was their affinity for intelligent, perceptive pop music with depth.

I was sixteen when I listened to this album and it was a big part of the playlist for my young adulthood. It was my first experience of strongly identifying with a collection of songs. Connecting to this LP, I finally understood what people older than me meant when they talked about an album defining a period of time in their lives.

Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn cover a wide range with Walking wounded. The title track was the first single off the album and a brave choice at the time. Liquid drum'n bass propels a haunting refrain by Tracey's plaintive voice. This song was my introduction to the concept of left-field pop music and the possibilities thereof. The album closes with a fresh, crystalline remix by experimental musician Omni Trio.

"Wrong", the second single, is a classic house track lamenting one's own mistakes and begging for absolution. When you hurt someone badly enough, you're connected to them forever. Todd Terry is brought back to remix this giving it a fuller sound and a similar beat to his immortal rework of "Missing". Notably, this is the only song on the album where Ben Watt contributes any vocals.

"Single" puts the 'down' in down-tempo. Quite possibly one of my most consistently favoured songs throughout my life, I may very well keep listening to it forever. The percussion sounds like an off-kilter heartbeat. A morose saxophone sample pops in and out just to remind us that this is, indeed, meant to be as gloomy as it sounds. The organ and strings set the standard for 'atmospheric' as far as I'm concerned. "Good Cop/Bad Cop" is my personal anthem; so much so, that I hesitate to review it. Suffice it to say that it's really, really good. A nice mid-tempo track reeling with angst and despair, it's the song I most identify with n the world. As with "Single", the strings are a strong element, this time emotive rather than oneric.


"Before Today" gives us some more drum and bass. But  instead of the drama and angst of "Walking Wounded", we get a cheeky ultimatum to an uncooperative lover. While not exactly happy, it offers a more cheerful interruption to the more depressive entries on the album. "Big Deal" is an unforgiving break-beat driven song chastising someone for wallowing in their problems. Tracey Thorn's delicately intimate vocals take on a bit of a sting here and one can't help but feel a little defensive."Flipside" gives us a drowsy bit of hip-hop with daydreamy lyrics.

"Mirrorball" is a nicely layered narrative song that reads like the diary of a crazy person. The acoustic guitar and Rhodes piano ground the electronic elements of the song. "Heart Remains a Child" has a similar vibe to "Mirrorball" but treads more relationship-y ground. It's a song whose point of view has lost all dignity to infatuation.

Revisiting this album is always a treat for me. While it's true that Everything but the Girl tend to make melancholy music, I find their sad songs comforting.  While most of the world might know them through the Todd Terry Remix of "Missing", I highly recommend looking at its immediate aftermath. Walking Wounded is a great snapshot of what was great about left-of-centre pop in the 90s. 

"That was all it took my dear..."

Mutya Keisha Siobhan 

One Touch, the Sugababes

Girl groups have been around for generations now. There's something universally appealing about  three to five young women harmonizing about love and heartbreak. The main genre associated with girl groups is pop music. And it's not just any old pop music, but the most saccharine, contrived and manufactured type of pop.

Enter one of my favourite exceptions to the above rule: the Sugababes.  In the year 2000, three London girls debuted their very first single: "Overload". Later on that year, their debut album One Touch came out. It is a work that has only grown better with time. Eclectic, mature and effortlessly cool, I've yet to find its like in any other girl group debut.

I find that the best pop music has something else going on. It's a little difficult at first, refusing to yield anything of itself until I've heard it several times.  It tends to be the kind of song that holds up nicely years or even decades later. One Touch is full of those kinds of songs.  Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy made a powerfully soulful combination.

It is astounding to me that this album was co-written by people so young. It feels like peeking into the diary of a teenage girl; but a teenage girl with depth.  At times full of attitude and at others  wistful melancholy, One Touch captures the ephemeral nature of growing up. It's a collection of moments when one realizes that the world isn't what it seemed and that one will never be the same.

"Overload" really is in a class of it's own as far as Brit-pop is concerned. I consider it to be the definition of Sugababes: their sound, their vibe, their identity. In the context of the kind of pop music we were getting in 2000 on both sides of the Atlantic, the song was like  a breath of fresh air in a coffin. "Overload" gave us this amazing blend of  chill vocals, electric guitar and amazing beats that was a good deal more alternative than what you would expect from a trio of girls in their mid-teens. It's mid-tempo which, time would go on to show, is where the Sugababes shine.

"New Year" is my favourite Holidays song. It describes the sorrow of running into an ex. soft and sweet on the surface, it betrays a depth of hurt that always makes me wince by the second verse. It's the musical equivalent of crying softly in the bathroom at a party so that no one else can hear. Again, the girls' youth comes into play here; the song is clearly from the perspective of someone going through this for the first time.

"Run For Cover" is just a little more heartbreak. As someone who's struggled against depression, I find it to be an apt description of what that feels like. Specifically, it recalls the shame and reluctance to talk about it that makes depression go undiagnosed so often. Keisha Buchanan supplies the lion's share of vocals here and she delivers them with beautiful fragility.

The title track "One Touch" is an interesting take on first love. Directly addressing a parental figure, the song's point of view defends her first relationship. A very relaxed down-tempo allows the girls to fill each bar of the song with richly layered harmonies making for a cool pleasurable listen.

The rest of the album continues to please. "One Foot In" and "Promises" chastise a two-faced paramour. "Look at me" again addresses a parental figure about the fear of growing up.  'Lush Life' is a moody, atmospheric bit of hip-hop that keeps its grit all these years later. "Just Let it Go" treads familiar ground for a girl-group, reassuring a friend that the latest ex isn't worth it.

Later iterations of the Sugababes had their charms and virtues, not to mention their fair share of great tunes. But with each departure of an original member, something essential was lost. It is an understatement to say that these three are magical together. Now, 13 years after One Touch, the girls have reformed under the name of MutyaKeishaSiobhan. Listen to their first single "Flatline"

"Off I go singin' a different tune."

Siobhan Donaghy
Ghosts.

One of the best albums I have ever listened to is Ghosts by English singer-songwriter Siobhan Donaghy. Released in 2007 when Donaghy was just 22, Ghosts retains its quality seven years on.  It is no less than a work of craftsmanship that, unlike most pop music, actually demands the attention of its listeners.

Watching and reading interviews from that time, one gets the sense that recording Ghosts was a very intense experience, emotionally and creatively. It was certainly one of isolation. The album was made in the North of France with producer James Sanger. Cloistered from media and the then current pop climate, Donaghy was free to choose her own influences and direction.

To be honest the album took a while to grow on me. I did not know what to make of it, having only known of Siobhan previously as the girl who sang "Overload" in the first incarnation of the Sugababes.  Not living in the U.K., I'd had no awareness of her solo career until I stumbled on the music video for "Don't Give it Up", the first single from Ghosts.  From there, I slowly got to know her post-girl group output. Suffice it to say that I fell in love with almost everything I heard.

I can't think of many other recording artists who release a concept album at 22. The sheer creative  ambition that Donaghy shows here is nothing less than inspiring.  The thread that holds the album together is intensity. Themes of struggle and desperation abound followed by a yearning to overcome. Genre-wise, I would classify this as a sort of dream-pop. The sound of Ghosts vary from oneiric and ethereal to frankly nightmarish.

One extraordinary piece of nightmare-pop is "Medevac", a powerful account of producer Jame Sanger's struggle with heroin addiction. In this, Siobhan delivers her most arresting vocals on the album. The whole thing rises to an incredible crescendo before being snuffed out like a candle.

On the oneiric side of things we have the title track "Ghosts". Distorted and weird, the vocals are recorded backwards for the verses.  The chorus is very Lord of the Rings "...sworn under an oath to war,". "Halcyon Days" is gentle slumber of a song that soothes the wounds of previous tracks. "Goldfish"  is an aqueous number that stands out as the album's most metaphysical entry. "Coming up for air" is an introspective song that mulls over the task of not being miserable for a change. "There's a place" is a heartfelt declaration of friendship and support that manages to avoid being even a little saccharine. "Don't Give it up" is a direct offer of encouragement to someone who's suffering, with neither pity nor judgement.

It's not all doom and gloom however. The somewhat country "12-bar Acid Blues" shows a wry sense of humour and an endearing wackiness. "Sometimes" is reminiscent of Kylie Minogue at her best and should have been considered as a single, in my humble opinion.

There is also a pair of 'relationship-y' songs on Ghosts. "So You Say" is a glorious guitar driven song where the two sides of Siobhan's voice are showcased quite nicely: the soft-spoken side and the belter. "Make It Right" is a song about culpability and hindsight, taking blame instead of casting it.

Siobhan's musical collaboration with Sanger is beautifully framed by her visual collaboration with photographer/director Floria Sigismondi. The artwork accompanying Ghosts fits the other-worldly tone of the album perfectly. Siobhan is presented as a beguiling, slightly distorted figure.

In a day and age where so many albums amount to a couple of singles padded out with filler, Ghosts is a welcome relief. It stands as an example to any aspiring recording artist of what's possible with the right combination of creativity and integrity.

"Petit Pays, je t'aime beaucoup"

Cesária Évora, R.I.P.

I'm trying to remember exactly when I fell in love with Cape Verdean music. I think it was around 2006? I know it began with (the greatly missed) Cesaria Évora.  The first time I heard her voice was on the soundtrack to Great Expectations. She was crooning a lovely rendition of 'Bésame Mucho' but that was in Spanish. I didn't know who she  was or where she was from. A few years later I found myself listening to one of her albums São Vicente di Longe and I wasn't quite sure what to make of what I was hearing. The music and the language it was sung in were both new and vaguely familiar. As I educated myself on Cape Verde, it's creolized language and culture and its multi-faceted music, I grew to love it.  Musically, the archipelago has so much to offer. Literally dozens of genres exist in this tiny space. The Morna, a down-tempo genre, recalls the ebb and flow of the tide on a desolate shore. The Batuku, with it's syncopated poly-rhythms, points an arrow straight to Cape Verde's neighbours in West Africa. Between these two poles lie a myriad of genres that  belie Cape Verde location between three continents.

Thematically, traditional Cape Verdean music covers various themes that recur int he lives of the Cape Verdean people.  Rain comes up a lot. The archipelago's history is peppered with devastating droughts. No wonder songs  address the rain like a lost lamented love or an old friend welcomed home. The ocean surrounding the islands figures prominently in these songs as well. Ever present, Cape Verdean singers often address the waters around them directly as if they were some inscrutable entity.  Cape Verde was, and continues to be an emigrant culture and so its songs are full of yearning for far-away loved ones.

I actually saw Cesaria Évora in Concert in 2008. It was glorious to see her in the flesh (albeit from several rows away). Even then, she seemed fragile. There was chair and a small table with a glass of water on stage with her. She would sit down after every second or third song to catch her bearings. Of course, she was without shoes, thus the name "the Barefoot Diva".  Whatever health issues she had, she nailed every performance of every song. Her voice is often compared to Billie Holiday's and that is a well-earned complement but there's more to it than that. This woman literally put her country on the map. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any recording artist that contributed to their own country's profile the way Cesária Évora did. To me she is the perfect answer to anyone who doubts the relevance of culture.

Mayra Andrade

It her footsteps have followed a generation of brilliant artists, many of whom I adore: Simentera, Lura, Sara Tavares and Mayra Andrade. Many of Cesaria's contemporaries and collaborators have also taken root in my playlist like Tito Paris and Teofilo Chantre amongst others. We may have lost the Barefoot Diva but we will never forget her nor shall we allow her to be forgotten. Her legacy is truly precious and all we can do is listen to the recordings she left behind and be grateful that she got to walk this Earth in her bare feet in the first place.