Eddi Reader: "Simple Soul"
The Catholic Church disavowed castration for choral purposes in 1903, but who needs singing eunuchs when we have vocal gymnasts like Bjork and Sinead? There are few technically dazzling singers you can really connect with, but former Fairground Attraction frontwoman Eddi Reader is one of them. Maybe it's because she's worked in factories, maybe it's her folk-pop roots, or maybe it's just characteristic Scottish modesty, but Reader doesn't care to be a diva. Instead, like Chrissie Hynde and the underrated Syd Straw, or Joni Mitchell before them, Reader is a vocalist of warmth as well as range, with an uncommon common touch.
Simple Soul, her fifth solo record, is one of her quietest since Fairground Attraction's oddball '80s-slick/'50s-quaint entry onto the late-Thatcher-era British charts. The subtly diverse moods range from bluesy melancholy to Celtic jauntiness. Reader's voice, somewhere between a pop-jazz croon and Linda Thompson's naked folk birdsong, lights up dimmer moments -- like the syrupy "I Felt a Soul Move Through Me" -- and polishes gems such as "Blues Run the Game," which is the kind of expansive, bittersweet saga Joni hasn't written in years.
The music on Simple Soul contains little more than the elements that typically signify "intimacy" in pop music: gentle acoustic plucking, lightly skipping percussion, floating, atmospheric keyboards. But Reader doesn't need rootsiness to keep her honest; she has the kind of voice that could cut through the crap of Celine Dion's production team (and in contrast to stagy pukers like Celine, she can hit euphoric highs and sound like she really means them). In fact, the more elaborate pop of last year's Angels and Electricity and even the airbrushed major-label effort Candyfloss and Medicine from 1996 not only showcased her range better, they were also just as personal.
While it would be a major achievement if Bjork or Sinead were to make an album this austere, restraint has never been Reader's problem. Simple Soul is as pretty a record as anything Reader's done, but it would be nice to hear her go a bit flaky next time around.
Reviewer: Andrew Marcus
from New Times Los Angeles Online