Rachel Brooke’s The Loneliness In Me (rachelbrookemusic.com), her first solo effort since 2012’s A Killer’s Dream, is a marvelous return to the sound of country music before it became Fleetwood Mac-ed.
This is especially clear on “The Awful Parts Of Me.” With her voice and the production, by her husband and fellow musician Brooks Robbins, Brooke conjures up the spirit of Patsy Cline and producer Owen Bradley not unlike k.d. lang’s 1988 Shadowland album which was one of the last albums produced by Bradley. Brooke and Robbins have put together a group of top-flight musicians who get what the pair are trying to do and the results make for a stellar listen.
The Loneliness In Me is, as can be expected in this genre, full of songs of heartbreak and missed opportunities, sometimes felt by her but also inflicted on others. An example of the latter is “It Ain’t Over Till You‘re Crying” about a woman cutting loose a guy she has strung along and insulting him along the way: “You’re just a fool’s gold in the mine,” she sings.
On “The Hard Way’ Brooke reflects on a failed relationship: “All of your reasons were sad but true/I was one too many in your spotlight for two.” Missed opportunities are highlighted in “Great Mistake,” a rewrite of sorts of the classic “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows:“ I was always chasing rainbows/Until someone stole my pot of gold.”
Adele & the Chandeliers
It’s not surprising that some of the songs on Adele & The Chandeliers debut album First Date (Bandcamp) sound like the early Go-Betweens when the band was just a three piece and before Grant McLennan moved from bass to guitar. Adele & The Chandeliers is also a three piece: Adele Pickvance on bass, organ, bongos, synthesizer, piano; Ash Shanahan on drums, mellotron, vocals; and Scott Mercer: on electric guitar, 12 string guitar, piano, synthesizer, and vocals.
Pickvance was the bass player for Phase II of The Go-Betweens and, after the death of McLennan in 2006, continued to work with Robert Forster on his album The Evangelist and toured the world with him for an evening of Velvet Underground covers at museums. (I saw them at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and it was one of those musical evenings that you wish would never end.)
First Date if full of short, sharp songs that, in most cases, run for less than three minutes. The album kicks off with “German On My Mind.” Pickvance’s bass is front and center and Mercer’s spiky riffs recall the sound of post-punk guitarists like Andy Partridge of XTC . (Karin Bäumler, violinist and wife of Robert Forster, provides the spoken word portion of “German On My Mind.”) The terrific “1234,” is another call back to the 80s and “Treasure” is a bouncy pop gem with the band really meshing. The cover of Buzzcocks‘ “Love You More” is a both a rave-up and a tribute to an obvious influence.
One of my favorites on First Date is “Swimming With Sharks” a song where the band stretches out. Clocking in at just over six-minutes, it could have been another fine three-minute tune but around the three-minute mark Adele, Scott, and Ash decide to keep going. It’s like when you see a band live and they just keep playing and you can’t believe your luck.
Allyson Seconds
The collaboration between Allyson Seconds and Anton Barbeau is a match made in Heaven, or at least in Sacramento. Both are natives of that West Coast city although Barbeau now calls Berlin home.
Originally released in 2009 the delightful Bag Of Kittens (Big Stir Records) has been reissued with four never-before-heard bonus tracks that include of cover of The Beatles’ “Baby’s In Black” that ends with Barbeau doing his best Dylan impersonation. This album is a must for anyone (like me) who adores the 2016 Seconds and Barbeau release Little World or anyone who loves off-kilter pop with great vocals.
As with Little World, Barbeau wrote, produced, and arranged the songs on Bag Of Kittens but it’s her voice that shines throughout the album. Seconds can sing like a child, a woman, or a siren singing rock, ballads, and country. And Barbeau has provided all of those for her.
And also like Little World and his solo albums, Barbeau the multi-instrumentalist brings along his musician friends to help flesh out his songs. On Bag Of Kittens these include guitarist Kimberly Rew (The Soft Boys, Katrina & The Waves), Alan Gregg (Mutton Birds), Vince Di Fiore and Gabe Nelson (Cake), and the whole of Oxford band Stornoway.
“I Used To Say Your Name,” with its spooky electric organ , is a broken-hearted apology to a former lover. “On A Bicycle Built For A Bicycle 9” has a terrific bass riff and is a spacey tune that recalls The Dukes of Stratosphear's “Bicycle Ride To The Moon.”
The sludgy, druggy, sexy “Put Your Finger On Me” is a song that almost demands you hear it on headphones (not earbuds but the big, black John-Cusack-in-High-Fidelity ones; ask you Dad if he still has his lying around but don’t be surprised if he’s using them to listen to Bag Of Kittens.)
“If I Could Bring You Trouble” is a duet and a showcase for the Seconds and Barbeau mind-meld and vocal bond. “Dig My Pig” has nonsense, repeated lyrics but it a jangle-pop treasure. And "Obviously Love" and "I'm Just A Country Girl" ("from downtown Sacramento") bring out the country side of the duo's talents.
“It runs in the family” sang Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy Roche on their debut album The Roches.
And their talent continues to run in the family. Suzzy and her daughter, Lucy Wainwright Roche (her father is Loudon Wainwright III and her half-brother is Rufus Wainwright), have released I Can Still Hear You (StorySound Records), their third collaboration. The recordings began in Nashville and then Suzzy and Lucy completed the project during quarantine in their apartments in New York, one in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn.
I’ve been a fan of The Roches since that first album came out in 1979 and it’s a real treat to hear voices like those again. I Can Still Hear You is like a warm embrace from a long-time friend and as Suzzy has said about the album “In a time when so many people are suffering, you hope that you can put something out into the world that will comfort.” It’s also a message from them that we’re not alone but in this together. So, it’s great to see you again, Suzzy, and it’s wonderful to meet you, Lucy.
In Lucy’s “I Can Still Hear You” she asks someone who is no longer with her to “Remember the words or the parts that you saved/Or carousel horses or have the summer behaved/Or off in the distance/Remember me too/‘Cause I can still hear you.” There’s a ghostly vibe to the song, reflected in the piano playing in the song’s middle as well as the video which shows empty New York streets during the lockdown.
Suzzy's“I Think I Am A Soul” is a song for these times as we have faced stay-at-home orders and only essential businesses staying open. If no one sees us for days at a time, do we still exist? “Floating around 14th Street every day/Shopping for tomatoes/Stopping at the light,” Suzzy sings. “The soul that I am gets lonesome like a million others.”
“Swan Duck Song,”also from Suzzy, is both a fairy tale and a recognition of how people and things can change over time and take many forms. “I went to the pond today/Looking for the swan,” she sings. “But the swan had turned into a duck/Tough case/Bad luck.” A few months later, Suzzy returns to the pond and the duck is gone but she does hear the sound of a tiny bird in the sky: “The duck said look at me/Now I‘m a hummingbird. “ (On a personal note: my sister believes, and I have no reason to doubt her, that the hummingbird that comes to the feeder on her deck is the spirit of our mother who passed away more than five years ago. She also thinks the other hummingbird who always crashes into a window is our father.)
Whether it’s genetics or a sign of how much they love each other, there are times when Suzzy and Lucy harmonize on songs like “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)” and “I Think I Am A Soul” that recall the vocals of Suzzy and Terre on albums by The Roches. All that’s missing is the addition of Maggie who lost her fight with cancer in 2017. But Maggie’s voice still lives on (you can hear it on a wonderful collection Suzzy put together) and her spirit is very much a part of I Can Still Hear You. Maggie sang lead on the traditional Irish song “Factory Girl” on The Roches’ 1980 Nurds album. Lucy brings the song back on I Can Still Hear You as a tribute to her aunt and she also sings “Jane,” a song that Maggie wrote when she was 18 and has never been recorded until now.
