The charismatic Tyneside-raised singer-songwriter of Norwegian and Pakistani heritage returns in fabulous, rich-voiced form with a powerfully dark fifth LP, resilient after a tumultuous few years of family grief, failed marriage, attempted suicide and rehab. That’s plenty to digest, recover and express. It’s almost four years since her last album, Kitchen Sink, soon after which her mother died of cancer, she bought a house in Ramsgate, got married, split with her husband, suffered ongoing PTSD, addiction, posted a suicidal message on Twitter, and then spent two months in recovery with other addicts.
But this is in many ways a triumphant return, and once again working with co-producer and musician Ben Hillier, with punchy, darkly thunderously rhythmic, passionate cross-genre pop songs dealing with dread, anger and grief, laced with irony and gallows humour. Greatest Dancer, for example, with buzzing electronica, heavy drumming and her soaring voice, reportedly derives from lockdown time and watching the TV show Strictly Ballroom with her dying mother.
Topless Mother, meanwhile, is another context entirely, referring to her own car crash therapy session, with absurd, amusing non sequitur word associations in the chorus (“Sinatra, Viagra, iguana, Sharia, Diana, samosa, Varuca, Tequila, banana, Alaska, Medusa, gorilla”). Twenty Things meanwhile is a powerful tribute to some of her fellow rehab patients. Melancholy synth pop, her previous jazz experience, and a variety of other influences, including Depeche Mode, who she recently supported on tour, bubbling up to the surface, with plenty more turmoil and emotion simmering earthily up in the rest of the album, from the talky dig at small-minded village mentality in Sad Lads Anonymous, the extraordinary broadening range of her voice, particularly on opener Even Light, to the beautiful but darkly end-it-all referencing closing track, French Exit. A warm, funny, passionate, powerful, outspokenly candid survivor making a welcome return, and happily still with plenty to give. Out on the new outside of London mainstream label EMI North, and Universal.
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