Cooking Vinyl & Outlaw Music (Release Date 16.01.26)

Elles Bailey’s career seems to be pickling up momentum at present. The Bristolian singer-songwriter’s last album ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’ reached No 12 in the charts and a European tour with Rag ‘n’ Bone Man will have raised her profile way beyond her devoted followers.

‘Can’t Take My Story Away’ begins with the title track, complete with horns, which reminded me a little of Beth Hart and aims at a vintage American soul sound, confirming the impression given by the stylishly retro monochrome album artwork.

Two things are immediately apparent on first listen. One is that the songwriting is tighter than before; the other an immaculate production from Luke Potashnick (ex Temperance Movement), who also co-wrote the majority of the songs. It places the focus absolutely on her voice with the music stripped back and in a supporting environment to show that sultry voice in its best light.

So the arrangements are notably sparse on the likes of ‘Growing Roots’, which has a slightly funky, almost jazz club vibe, the very personal ‘Blessed’, a ballad with strings, and ‘Constant Need to Keep Going’ with some mournful sounding pedal steel from guest star Ethan Johns.

‘Better Days’ was written by the late Matt Long of Catfish. Unusually for her, it extends to over five minutes, allowing the band to jam in Allmans style and is the obvious song here that would be suited to her live show.

The lively ‘Take a Step Back’ is one of the few other uptempo numbers, and another with the vibe of sixties soul, in this instance Motown, while ‘How Do You Do It’ has a slinky groove and some bluesy guitar.

I always thought she was an uneasy bedfellow of the New Wave of Classic Rock movement (not to mention a Planet Rock DJ). While previous releases have straddled rock, blues, Americana and soul, the latter is the dominant musical trend on this album. Indeed on more than one occasion I was even detecting an Amy Winehouse vibe.

‘Angel’ is a prime example of her sultry mix of soul and blues, also going off into a closing jazzy diversion with horns, though the album ends a little anti climactically with a trio of slow songs in ‘Dandelion’, ‘Tightrope’ and the strings-laden ‘Starling’.

If, like me and probably the majority of readers to this site, you lean more towards guitar based rock, this is unlikely to be the album that converts you. But good music is good music and this may be the album that breaks her talent into wider consciousness. *** 1/2

Review by Andy Nathan

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