Regrettably, not all Irish singer-songwriters have mastered the art of making records that sound contemporary while still maintaining the focus of song content and artistic intention. The New York domiciled Elaine K has done just that with her latest opus, recorded last year in New York with a crew of hot musicians and now available in her home land.
‘Soft Skin’ out-kds Lang with its smouldering, seductive vocal. ‘Not About You’ sizzles with a mean uptempo groove, a devilgate Suzy Quatro for these times. ‘Lucky’ is deliciously laid back, a post 9/11 appreciation of survival, and that same self-confidence is evident in ‘The Ballad’, a startlingly graphic song about rape with an appropriate but unsettling discordance in its instrumental mid-section.
‘You Should Have Known’ has tasty sax fills from Zrazy’s Carole Nelson and has echoes of Eleanor McEvoy in both melody and treatment. Things get a bit jiggy with the bongofied ‘Seduce Me’ and the cello adds a rich depth to ‘Deserve You’, although Ms K loses points for thoughtless clichés like “it takes two to tango”.
But the real killer here is ‘I Will Not Fight Your War’, an apt and passionate anthem for the torn world we live in which avoids peace and love tweeness. Although it offers no new breakthroughs in music-making, this is Elaine K’s most mature album to date and proof that our loss is NY’s gain.