LTM's re-issue of ex-MIAOW prime mover and NME scribe CATH CARROLL'S excellent solo debut "England Made Me" earlier this year was more than enough to whet the appetite for this, her brand new studio album and long-awaited follow up to 2000's "Cath Carroll."
This writer must hold up his hand and admit he's not had the opportunity to check out the "Cath Carroll" album, but if it's even half as good as "The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake" it'll be a mighty record, as "...Ghost Lake" is a superb album, full of poise and resonant songs from Carroll and husband Kerry Kelekovich.
Certainly if you're coming to "...Ghost Lake" directly from "England Made Me", this will quickly throw you a dummy sonically. Carroll's lovely, breathy voice is intact (actually, she sounds better than ever), but there are a lot of musical changes. For a start, "EMM" relied heavily on machine-tooled grooves and Latin percussion, while here expansive, live-sounding pop landscapes crop up from the fertile soil, and while breakbeats are still utilised (not least on the strange, but likeable junglist hybrid "Mystified"), there's less emphasis on the Latino element.
"...Ghost Lake" begins and comes full circle with the beauiful, melancholy sliver of "All Of Our Lives", setting up a canvas for Carroll's emotional lyrical brush strokes. Cath and Kerry have no problem in turning in unashamed pop moments here either: "The Boy From Islamorada", "Free" and the great "Divine Ms.A" all being examples of 24-carat songwriting. This latter drops is back into Carroll's Mancunian landscape with this fascinating tale of a transgendered Manc character featuring both some inspired wordplay ("The sanitation always caused great consternation") and a tune with definite universal appeal.
|
"Free", meantime, nods vigourously to classic Brit psych-pop (imagine a supercharged "See My Friends" by The Kinks), while in the monster dance beats and distorto guitars of downtrodden anthem "Average And Unsaved" and "Man Goes Down The Highway"s dubby folk-pop, Cath's delivering material to knock spots off the more celebrated female talents like Beth Orton.
But "...Ghost Lake" also works like a charm when they slow the pace a little. Indeed, with the sumptious acoustic ballad "In Your Own Way" and the tender "Dunvant Junior Prayers" - an elegy to those lost in the horrific 1966 Aberfan slag heap disaster - she's turning in career highlights to date. Carroll was 6 when Aberfan happened and lived only 50 miles away. If you fail to be moved by her lyrics here ("This nation was built upon their battered backs and crippled lungs") you must possess a heart of the coldest stone.
Blessed with a virtually non-existent quotient of duff tracks, "The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake" is truly a fine album by an exceptionally under-rated singer/songwriter. LTM release goodies from her MIAOW past next year. Make sure to earmark those in your diary, too.
|
