Reviews
Artist:Sophie Jamieson Album: I Still Want To Share
Label: Bella Union
Tracks: 11
Website: https://sophiejamieson.com/
"I still want to share is an album exploring the push and pull, merry-go-round nature of anxious attachment and how it weaves, cuts, and steals through familial and romantic relationships. Throughout the record is a perpetual longing to belong, a yearning to learn how to love and let go, and a continual missing of the mark. Each song clings tightly to the possibility of home but never arrives there."
Camera, a song that relates the art of composing a photo to weeding out the unimportant aspects of life introduces the guitar and strings which are the key sounds across the album. Vista's layered vocals offer some beautifully introspective lyrics over a sparse backing. The sympathetic production from Guy Massey (Kylie Minogue and Spiritualised) and Josephine Stephenson's string arrangements fill out the sound where it's needed, as on the sweeping I Don't Know What To Save but know when something less intrusive is needed. Baby and Highway show off the minimalist side of her songs.
Welcome adds electronic treatment to the strings to give a hesitant tone and builds a tension into the song through alternating quite and (relatively) loud passages. Throughout her singing is absolutely from the top tier of performances you will hear this year. The degree of honesty and vulnerability she brings to her words is reflected in her delivery of them.
This is one of those albums which needs to be listened to all through, as the songs just seep into your consciousness and flow together, and spending time with the songs, allows the little sound touches. What sounds like a cup being tapped in I'd Take You and other little touches of sound which crop up for a song or a minute build the world that you can drift into and lose time in.
On her Facebook page she says: "The writing and recording of this album has taught me patience and gentleness with a fearful, anxious part of me that I spent many years battling and numbing. I want this album to show you the beauty in your insatiable longing, which skims the surface of your life. Nothing here needs fixing. There is beauty in the imperfect way in which you love people, and the imperfect way in which you are loved."
She leaves one of the best songs until the end. Time Pulls You Over Backwards is a sentiment that many people would resonate with. Starting with another single guitar it develops through more layered vocals until it just fades away rather than ending.
Following up 2022's Choosing was never going to a simple task, but Jamieson has grasped the challenge and produced a remarkable album, which has the same sort of quiet power that Over The Rhine do well. Intense, yet delicate, filled with sounds that enhance the lyrics yet leaving space in the music to allow those words room to breathe. A perfectly formed record.
Tim Martin
| Previous | Next |
|---|---|
| The Clang Group: New Clang | John Lodge: Love Conquers All |
Recent Reviews
- Maria Mihailik:Maria Mihailik
- Mama's Broke:Reunion
- Leslie Waugh:Night Bloom
- Kate Waters:Some Comfort
- Faris Ishaq:Jasad
- The Kennedys:Smoketree
- Nic Norton and Alice Morell:The Stone Tape
- M G Boulter & Jenny Sturgeon:Wild Convenor
- Christian Parker, Patrick Cleary and Earl Poole Ball:American Cosmic Revival Vol 2: Miles From Nowhere
- Around About Dusk:Sweet Old Fables
Vista
Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.