Hollie Smith: Humour and the Misfortune of Others (EMI)

 |   |  <1 min read

Hollie Smith: Before This Day is Gone
Hollie Smith: Humour and the Misfortune of Others (EMI)

This can be extremely brief given that Smith's story, travails and so on have been much canvassed. But what hasn't been said too often or too loudly is that while her previous album Long Player sold exceptionally well it came encumbered with two shortcomings which probably didn't go unnoticed by those at Manhattan/Blue Note with whom she parted company.

It lacked coherent songs (aside from Don McGlashan's Bathe in the River obviously), and she was prone to start at the top of her over-emoting range and try to move up from there. Soulful ululation has its place but usually it is in the service of the song, not as a substitute for one -- and that's what that album sounded like to these ears.

That's not a popular opinion to hold given the album was much loved by some (and bought by 30,000 New Zealanders), but let it be said that this new one suffers from no such problems.

It is a powerful, cathartic and soulful album and songs like Humour bristle with slinky energy and power. There is also real emotional drama here (the Aretha-like piano ballad Finding Home, the guitar-slashed blues of Let Me Go) and it is now her delicious and deliberate understatement which allows that terrific voice to have necessary counterpoint when she takes off on sky-scaling flights.

Wonderful album on every front. She should be clearing a space on the mantelpiece. 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

The Shins: Oh, Inverted World; 20th Anniversary Reissue (Sub Pop/digital outlets)

The Shins: Oh, Inverted World; 20th Anniversary Reissue (Sub Pop/digital outlets)

Within three months of the release of this sometimes but only occasionally delightful, joyful, retro-referencing and slightly skewiff debut album by Albuquerque's four-piece the Shins, the world... > Read more

Skyscraper Stan: Golden Boy Vol I and Vol II (digital outlets)

Skyscraper Stan: Golden Boy Vol I and Vol II (digital outlets)

Yes, Stan Woodhouse does literally stand tall, but he also has a towering musical presence on this second album after Last Year's Tune about four years ago. He's a troubadour who explores... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND on a classic British crime movie

GUEST WRITER SARAH JANE ROWLAND on a classic British crime movie

Get Carter (1971) is a British crime thriller, about gangsters, corruption and family loyalty, set against the grime of a declining Northern town. The film marked the directorial debut... > Read more

EARTH TO MOON by MOON UNIT ZAPPA

EARTH TO MOON by MOON UNIT ZAPPA

When Moon Unit Zappa went to college she felt sorry for the kids because they had to share their name with other people, and she couldn't believe that some of the kids' parents had divorced because... > Read more