The long-awaited new album from the Liverpool UK songwriter NATALIE MCCOOL “The Great Unknown” is available now.
We were anxious to hear it right away — so we began spinning it last night…
McCool boasts the very finest musical background, graduating from the highly prestigious Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) with top honours.
A burgeoning alumni career has seen McCool perform at Hyde Park to an audience of 120,000, with a live four-track EP from London’s Abbey Road Studios also under her belt.
Fans of McCool’s work include Sir Paul McCartney, Bernard Butler (Suede), Steve Lamacq and Mojo founder Paul Du Noyer.
Sitting somewhere between the trembling beauty of Copenhagen’s Kill J and the feminine sparkle of Iceland’s Ólöf Arnalds – her voice floats like crystal swans.
The album begins with “Pins” a song about “heart needles” and embroidering emotions together. This boasts huge slices of Ultravox’s “Vienna”.
The number is pin-sharp acute with Nordic-style vocals.
The rat-tailed rhythms and chattering synths — they flux gently between the smooth rendered wobbles and enlightened lyrics — make this a sensational start to a perfect album.
“Cardiac Arrest” is as cheerful as a summer picnic. And that is quite contradictory, given the lyrical message. Milk bottle glockenspiel reverberations establish a framework for a vocal that is ground-hugging and low-lying at times…. Yet can reach blue-sky expanses once it arches strong and spreads angelic wings.
Breathy “Dig it Out” was released as a single and album teaser back in September 2016.
The sound structure on this reminds us, curiously, of “Decode” by rock band Paramore. The beat is like the quick flicking of an ivory hand-fan . The glacial streams of voice are cooler than fresh blue ice spurs and cut the snowy mantle like rinds of tamarind in cool butter.
The “Great Unknown” Nat is a first-rate writer and incredibly talented performer… She won’t be unknown for much longer…
The album was funded by generous pledgers. If you want to help too, go here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/nataliemccool-thegreatunknown
