After Catatonia's star began to fall and they eventually imploded messily, few would have expected their feistily off-centre singer CERYS MATTHEWS to re-invent herself as a credible Americana practitioner, but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and, yep, for the most part, her debut album "Cockahoop" tastes mighty good: even if the recipe remains rather idiosyncratic.
On paper, I agree it sounds potentially disastrous. You'd think Cerys would be much better suited to writing songs about, say, Port Talbot or Haverford West than the banjo'n'fiddle hoedown celebrating "Louisiana", but - like with the decision to record in Nashville with celebrated Steve Earle/ Ryan Adams steel guitarist Bucky Baxter at the production helm - she soon wins you over, puts a chummy arm around your shoulder, grins and says: "well, what were you worrying about, son?"
Admittedly, most of "Cockahoop"s Alt.Country aspirations work because they're shaped by a dynamite team including Baxter, Emmylou Harris guitarist Richard Bennett, multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke and ex-Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, but the very live-sounding end results couch her lippily effective confessionals beautifully and do anything but dwarf that irrepressible Matthews persona.
Very little reminds of Catatonia's Britpop past. The single, "Only A Fool" - with its' bells and Bennett's Hank Marvin-style guitar break - is a semi-acoustic take on the sound we'd previously associated with Cerys, but it's by some way the exception rather than the rule, and the fact it's preceded by a faithful version of The Handsome Family's unsettling Americana classic "Weightless Again" and followed by the brief'n'bonkers country waltz that is"La Bague" leaves you in no doubt this is a very different canvas she's daubing on these days.
Elsewhere, laidback, ramshackle, but always melodic backdrops inspire her to let rip memorably. After all, who else would open her debut album after a well-publicised booze battle with a cutie called "Chardonnay", celebrating her love of the grape? Typically, it's honest almost to the point of pain. An even more unlikely winner is the Welsh-language "Argwyldd Dyrna Fi", with its' stately curls of pedal steel, brushed drums and flute solo. It twins Nashville with Newport to dreamy effect too. Then there's the loopy "If You're Looking For Love", with its' wonky accordion, sax and dobro and shrugged glory. Perhaps best of all, though, is the Gospel-influenced lullabye "All My Trials", which to these ears sounds like an unlikely hit single.
|
OK, a couple of times she oversteps the mark: "The Good In Goodbye" is painfully honest ("I woke up in the morning stripped of everything") but ultimately strains and tries too hard, while "Ocean" goes nowhere pleasantly enough and reminds us that enthusiasm rather than technique sometimes got/ gets Cerys through.
But, even allowing for these barbs, "Cockahoop" is way, way better than most of us could/ would have imagined. "I'm soft in the middle, still hurt in the middle" sings Cerys on the deceptively jaunty "Caught In The Middle," and while you could accuse her of forcing us to attend her therapy classes with her, these offbeat nuggets of experience work in cahoots with their low-key rootsy cohorts the way fine, battered haddock goes with the humble chip.
Besides, it finally puts the ugly spectre of that bloody "Mulder And Scully" song to bed for good. That should be more than enough for all of us.
|
