London based Helen Dooley aka “The Cheek of Her” is a singer/songwriter who knows how to write a great pop track – yet there is a darkness to her that sets her apart from other female musicians.
Now she brings us her fresh new album full of sardonic wit, and emotional intelligence: AAA: AdultAngstAnonymous
The album begins with the mournful piano ripples of ‘Adult Angst Anonymous’ – this is (for us) very reminiscent of Eight Line Poem by David Bowie (on Hunk Dory) – the same indolent, almost lazy, approach and the terrible anguish in the unfocused vocal parts. That voice – it’s kooky. It’s quirky. But it works away like a silk-moth – weaving shapes inside your skull.
‘Guitar Muse’ has a crazy-paving layer of guitar – then the throaty, glossy vocal clowns in.
The suggestion is that the lone strummer – fiddling away with himself – (she views him with disappointment rather than disgust) is not alluring. A wise girl does not need to feel she has to be in debt to a guy like this.
Jimi wrote wonderfully about the ‘Axis of Love’ – ( “Bold as Love” 1967) – and about the confusing splendour of love – how it hovers above us – and we cannot quite connect with it. These ideas are also beautifully rendered, once again, in Axis of Love this time by The Cheek of Her.
Her song starts with a gaunt archway created by a strand of “No,no, no’s…” Every nuance is stated to great effect. The strain is unbearable. And always obvious. In each note.
‘Another Guy I Buried in the Woods’ is a little lax (melody wise), but the words are attractive and engaging.
It reminds you of an adolescent gushing … words written in tears, suddenly, rashly and uncontrollably – all collected together in a private diary: “I never rocked your world...”
What better way to describe someone you are strangely – parasitically – drawn to – than to compare them with an itchy flea!
“The Fleas Song” is a retribution song. This guy has stolen her time (and heart) first time around … so this is a statement of revenge: “Don’t wanna make love with you tonight … something just doesn’t sit right…” And the butterflies she used to enjoy fluttering inside her – well, they are now replaced by fleas.
This is an amazing collection of authentic songs.
Cracking girl power attitude, with a dramatic voice that is so treacherously perplexed, it could make a grown man grimace.
@neilmach © 2014
Link:
https://www.facebook.com/thecheekofher
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