Eddi Reader: "Eddi Reader"
Fairground Attraction: "The First of A Million Kisses"
Is there such things as a perfect pop album? Eddi Reader may have
just made it. Reader rose to fame as the lead singer of the British
group Fairground Attarction, in the six years since ther group's
debut she has toured and then broken up with that band, toured
solo, and as part of a trio with Clive Gregson, and now has her
first proper solo album. Reader sings on the album's opening song
"The Right Place": Five or ten lifetimes ago, there lived a girl
you don't know. She walked about and answered to my name.
A truer statement could not have been made, as the Eddi Reader who sang simple roots-embracing lounge jazz and old timey inspired pop has been replace by a woman who can belt out sophisticated melodies, handle her way around cool slick bass lines and sing with perfect irony lines like; If a handout to the hungry and the homeless is a fiver in the fickle hand of fate, does it mean we'll be there on the guest list when we get to heaven's gate?
These lines are from one of the album's best tracks "The Exception," written by fellow ex-Fairgrounder Mark E. Nevin. Nevin wrote some of that group's best material and he writes about half of the material, while the other half is carried by Boo Hewerdine, keyboard/accordion player Teddy Borowiecki and Reader herself. This is sophisticated pop, a la Everything But The Girl, sans the melancholy. In fact, on some tunes like "Patience of Angels," Reader sounds down right joyous. She does one well know cover of Kirsty MacColl and Nevin's "Dear John," while the rest of the material is all fresh and sometimes esoteric, as in her moon inspired "Howling in Ojai" or the darkly funny "Sirens."
Reader's new album inspired me to seek out the CD release of her old band Fairground Attraction. To my surprise their debut, The Fist of a Million Kisses, still sounds as fresh as the day I first heard it, mixing a carousel feel with a stripped down root orientated instrumentation. One is quickly reminded of the joys of Simon Edward's guitaron (Mexican acoustic bass) playing, that does a wonderful jazzy imitation of a double bass. Songwriter Mark E. Nevin plays beautifully restrained and melodic gitars (acoustic and electric) and drummer Roy Dodds finds a delicate balance between lounge lizard brush work and trash can thump. In the center of all this is, of course Eddi Reader, sounding much younger, but oh what a voice, especially on the full tilt boogie jazz numbers like "(It got to be) Perfect." The 1993 CD reissue has two additional tracks not on the original 1988 album and in all it's a grand debut for one fine singer.
Reviewer: Lahri Bond
from CDNow