Strange Brew [Release date : 25.10.24]

Mary Coughlan’s ‘Repeat Rewind’ is released hand in hand with the 40^th anniversary of her career and provides the perfect showcase for her full range of talents, from heartfelt, humorous and ironic observations to a versatile vocal style that effortlessly shifts from the sultry to the exclamatory.

She has a restless, resilient quality which when not searching for emotional depth, slips into some contrasting flighty phrasing to bring out the full humour of her word plays.

‘Repeat Rewind’ also adheres to the sense of being anniversary album in the way it mixes trademark introspective love songs with a close miking jazzy feel, which invites a shared intimacy.

At times ‘Repeat Rewind’ feels like a stripped down confessional singer-songwriter album, albeit peppered with occasional shimmering string arrangements.

On the Dylanesque ‘Lumberjack’ for example, the strings amplify an emotion, while on the balladic ‘I Can Let Go’ they are in danger of being overbearing and give the track an MOR feel.

Coughlan’s long time producer Peter Glenister attempts to bring out every nuance of her oeuvre with his additional use of electronics.

This approach certainly works well on the title track, which builds to a resolving tango finish, but less so on the otherwise excellent ‘What If I Do’.

The problem with the latter is that it gives the track a retro 80’s feel which draws us away from the song’s beautifully woven and very deliberately phrased opening lines; “Holding my breath and my tongue, I don’t want to get this wrong, Biting my nails, biding my time, until all the stars collide.

Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s you, what if I don’t, what I do”.

The beautifully produced ‘Free Falling’ is an uplifting duet with Ultan Conlon and is full of rich harmonies, finger clicking insistence, a big hook and a humorous lyrically antithetical bridge.

The album is anchored by her evocative lyrics and emotive phrasing which finds the perfect foil in pianist Johnny Taylor’s restrained accompaniment.

The title track provides the blueprint for the album as a whole, being a reflection on her past, as seen through snapshots of filmic poetic imagery.

‘Fairy Tale’ is given a welcome brush stroked and punctuated Latino feel which underscores spiky wordplays on another close-to-the-mic vocal: “My svengali, my heroin, slavery dipped in saccharin, wonderful to fall right in, fairytales looking grim.”

The album dips slightly just past the half way mark because of the sequencing, which finds the two ballads ‘I Cant Let Go Now’ and ‘Really Gone’, leading into a stripped down version of The Beach Boys ‘God Only Knows’.

As a result, the latter is initially robbed of its immediacy, but her earthy voice still manages to draws the listener into an emotional vortex, which overcomes a tentative electronic (perhaps Theremin) accompaniment.

No matter, she’s at her very best on the haunting ballad ‘Really Gone’ on which each syllable is wrapped in a whispered vocal, and is given extra purchase by great lines such as: “life is different, but love’s is still as strong, I can lift with my arms, but I’m dizzy and stumbling along.

“Time is a bullet and were riding it rodeo style, I miss you now that were out of time.”

And for those rare occasions when she’s broaches MOR, as on the humorous duet of ‘Marital Bliss’, which you could imagine on a Broadway musical, or ‘Tinsel Town’, which could be Karen Carpenter on a pitch for a seasonal Disney film, there’s her flinty book-end ‘More Like Brigid’.

The funky jagged jazzy big band arrangement perfectly fits her self affirmative lyrics which pokes fun at traditional gender roles.

‘Repeat Rewind’ feels very personal, almost like a cathartic release.

On the other hand it is everything you might expect from a vocalist who has a rare ability to unravel, explore and ultimately deliver a universal emotion with a soulful voice which wrings every last drop of meaning from every last word. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)