The mysterious GOD HELP THE GIRL appear on Rough Trade apparently from nowhere, but scratch a little deeper and you discover there's actually a well-established pedigree at work here.
In reality, GHTG (get used to it, it'll be like EBTG for Everything But The Girl) are the brainchild of Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, on a quest for great new female voices to flesh out his muse. He's certainly found one with 'Come Monday Night”s chanteuse, Catherine Ireton, too, though this writer feels the need to split a few hairs about her past. The press release suggests she was found through a “friend of a friend” in Edinburgh (true enough, I'm sure) but Catherine actually has a bit of a track record. She sang with Cork-based band Elephant for several years prior to her Scottish sojourn. If you don't believe me, do a quick search on W&H: you'll find we were effusively praising Catherine's voice several years ago.
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Anyway, that beef over, she sounds as good as ever on 'Come Monday Night'. Although – as is often the case with this writer where B&S are concerned – the music's a tad too lightweight, the propulsive bassline works well enough as the spine and the sweeping, cinematic strings couch Ireton's crystal clear vocal with class to spare. It's a decent, sophisticated pop record and a good introduction to the album due in June.
Oh, and while my promo copy doesn't run to it, the B-side has the immortal title 'Howard Jones Is My Mozart'. Talk about twisted genius.
(www.roughtraderecords.com)
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