Wonderfully engaging, darkly humorous, catchy, clever noir pop by the self-deprecatory but talented Bristol artist presenting “a collection of coming-of (middle) age stories which celebrate flamboyant failure, excess and acceptance.” Breeze flips between amusingly caustic talking sections and powerful, swaggering pop vocals with an impressive range. Instant standout is former Song of the Day and opener Ordinary Life (“I was terrible waitress and an even worse singer, but … I just knew something bigger, brighter … I’m still waiting”), but other gems include the swaggering melody and sexy thrumming bass of Anna Nicole, a peon to the tragic former Playboy centrefold (“Anna Nicole, glamor, glory and gold / Oh Anna Nicole, fried chicken and silicone”); Dance With The Rats; the nostalgic electro-pop Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl; the slower, country-style Part of Me, which playfully collages fantasy scenes between various famous and infamous figures from Thatcher to Jimmy Savile (“The day the British Empire expired / Sid Vicious and Shakespeare made love in the soft candle light /The Spice Girls were silent/ The Kray twins had been gentrified / Princess Dianna went undercover / She works at Anne Summers, she wears a disguise / Saville and Thatcher French kiss in the shower”); then the soaring, crooning love song, Cosmic Evolution (“Fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution / And here you are /Your birth is a one in four trillion chance /You’re one of eight billion works on art Lying in bed on a far flung star”), which solidifies a more country-style, classic-songwriter second half of the album with tracks like Turn Me On, or the fabulously soaring Chelsea Satanist. Packed with biting amusement but also tender empathy, colourful nostalgia and strong songwriting, a joy from first to last. Out on Sugar Shack Records.
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