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Album Review
by SashaS
19-5-2003
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| Cerys locates her neo-sensual depth |
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Cerys Matthews: 'Cockahoop'
(Warner)
Cerys Matthews: party epicentre to a Tennessee shack
By the grand destiny’s design two former charismatic leaders of impressive bands are making their solo debuts. This week we have Cerys Matthews, ex-Catatonia, and the next one will see return of Skin, formerly Skunk Anansie frontwoman. The latter’s change of direction is greater – politico-rocker to pop-rock and crooning – but the former will face a greater challenge due to the previous success’ baggage and public’s image of her.
Cerys Matthews was the BritPop’s unrivalled Über-babe with reputation of a ‘Premier Laddette’; in her day, it was she or Meg Matthews (ex-Mrs Noel Gallagher) who were the party soul on the town! But, behind all the debauchery Cerys was a shy person who needed her addictions to get her through other’s ambitions. It normally led to a rehab, followed by the break up of Catatonia and the pin-up of many a boy’s dream was gone, save for a duet with Tom Jones. Two years down the road, the party-babe returns as a lady.
Now located in wilderness outside of Nashville, Tennessee, married (she is Mrs Seth Riddle) and is expecting her first child. ‘Cockahoop’ is the sound of the ‘new’ woman, happier, contented and at peace with her own self. There may be a label pressure for the album to perform well but Cerys doesn’t appear to have considered it while making the album. This disc is a labour of love, the sound of songs that heart chose to write rather than being tailored to fit whatever elusive market suits reckon it can be aimed at.
Recorded in Nashville it toys with the sound of country as well as folk, there is a bit of a blues about it but the bottom line is that this is a pop album. At its heart is the populist sensibility, which is aptly demonstrated by ‘Caught In The Middle’, a mid-paced folksy song with a catchy refrain. ‘Louisiana’ picks up-tempo a bit to counter countrified-beat with a quickened vocal. And that vox still sounds so bloody lived-in!
All the tracks allow Matthews’s voice to come through like never before: more expressive, able to breathe and dig deeper into the character-psyche. And she ranges from Dolly Parton to Janis Joplin (on ‘The Good In Goodbye’). You can clearly hear her being happy by being able to expend her creative wings. Between original material and covers, an oldie ‘All My Trials’, Handsome Family’s ‘Weightless Again’ and Welsh hymn ‘Arglwydd Dyma Fi’, the disc moves far and away from the opener of this parade of songs, ‘Chardonnay’; an ode to her past self, a goodbye (and good riddance?) to the former life that only led to severe and perma-hangovers. It is like a wave from a bridge named Y…
A delight of a disc for fans who like their idols to develop rather than being forced to eternally act as arrested developers and caught in commercial ruts…
8/10
SashaS
19-5-2003
Cerys Matthews’s album ‘Cockahoop’ is released 19 May 2003 by Warners
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