Classic_Pop_Issue_30_July_2017

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“

S

uddenly the landscape

has changed,” sang

Alison Moyet as

2013’s The Minutes

got underway, and it

was true. In producer

Guy Sigsworth, she’d

fi nally found someone

who understood how

to best exploit the dark

power of her voice, cloaking it

in rich electronic arrangements

and matching its passion

with drama. Four years later,

on Other’s opening track I

Germinate, this remains true.

Moyet seems reborn,

overfl owing with confi dence,

her melodies as strong as

any she’s sculpted, her lyrics

ingeniously weighty.

She is also accompanied

by some of the most pristine,

formidable music of her career,

but – with all due respect to

Sigsworth – it’s Moyet’s words

that demand most attention.

Eloquent and expressive, they

reveal a woman revelling in

both her environment and her

articulacy. Though she belittles

her strengths on the gorgeous

The English U – ironically with

pithy wit like: “I want to know

the comma/ Though I neglect to

honour/ Every breath implied/

Uncertain of its need” – it’ll be

a while before we stumble on

anything so poetic.

So compelling are her words,

she recites to us rather than

sings on April 10th, conjuring

up arresting images of “Fog,

like boiled wool, felt-tight”.

Elsewhere, her luxurious

vocals are perfectly suited

to descriptions of “a crocus

offering saffron token” on the

grandiose I Germinate, or

loaded observations such as the

delicate title track’s “Don’t want

another rock to hang about my

neck/ You see bejewelled/ I

see bedecked in dead stars”.

On the energetic Happy

Giddy, a big budget throwback

to Yazoo, her mood is lighter as

she mocks social media culture:

“Find your life online/ Emoji

man”. However, on Beautiful

Gun she converts this fl ippancy

to grotesque sarcasm (“You’ve

got a gun-toting gait/ That’s a

walk that I rate”), while guitars

wail behind her.

Those holding onto the Alf

of All Cried Out and That

Ole Devil Called Love might

be surprised by elements of

Other, but the majority will

feel invigorated. Moyet still

addresses romance on Lover,

Go, where rich synths are

matched, unexpectedly, by a

baroque harpsichord line, and

she is sweet as syrup on Alive.

Throughout it is her

individuality that radiates

strongest. As she puts it so

exquisitely on Other: “I cut out

whichever shape I need... I’m

as free as I have ever been.”

Wyndham Wallace

ALISON MOYET

OTHER

COOKING VINYL

PICKING UP WHERE HER LAST RECORD LEFT OFF, ALISON MOYET PAIRS UP WITH PRODUCER

GUY SIGSWORTH FOR HER NINTH ALBUM, AN INTENSELY THRILLING TOUR DE FORCE

89

CLASSIC

BEST NEW RELEASE

JULY 2017

NEW RELEASES

CP30.reviews.print.indd 89 08/06/2017 11:15