CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY – THE DEEP BLUE (2007)Charlotte made the correct decision to relinquish her Guitar duties with Ash 3 years ago, and her two solo releases prove that sonically she was grounded in the more experimental Power Pop than her former charges who have recently become a more mainstream Rock act. Her debut, “Grey Will Fade” was packed with punchy, upbeat and often funny odes to relationships and quirky English life. It was an accumulation of life long note book jottings, pulled together hastily to mark her new career, and frankly the album benefited from the said immediacy. Her new album “The Deep Blue” is obviously a more considered affair, enabling the Londoner and her ex Captain Beefheart member and producer Eric Feldman to fully develop the songs with deeper arrangements and more intricately textured instrumental accompaniment. The songs are slowed down a notch to portray her new found attention to detail, for greater harmonics, and this new approach works reasonably well for the majority of the collection even if there is a tendency to stifle the natural jauntiness. The instrumental opener “Cousteau” perfectly exemplifies this new approach, swirling and whooshing like the tide, with Charlotte’s multi tracked “oohs” drifting on the warm ocean breeze, its density sweeping with a hypnotic appeal. The lead off single, “Behave” is Hatherley at her best. A killer lead guitar melody sucks you in to a song of irresistible pop originality, with hints of her XTC influences laced throughout. “I Want You To Know” and “Very Young” are fun Pop/Punk, and bear the closest relationship with her debut. Under closer scrutiny, there isn’t the consistent quality songwriting that brought us the excellent singles “Bastardo”, “Summer” and “Kim Wilde” and overall this isn’t as entertaining as “Grey Will Fade”, but there’s still enough distinctive musical ambition and creative unpredictability to keep “The Deep Blue” from bombing. That said, some of the slower numbers, particularly “Love’s Young Dream”, “Roll Over” and “It Isn’t Over” are pedestrian Pop, awaiting some form of ignition spark that never arrives. A shame really because there’s obviously every intention from the artist to offer up a deliberate progressive transition to avoid complete repetition of a theme, but somewhere along the route a small proportion of the product slipped through the quality control department unchecked.Charlotte Hatherley is one of the few British female artists bravely wading into uncharted waters, and although “The Deep Blue” doesn’t cause as big a splash as her debut, it remains authentic, warm and inviting enough to reel you in.7/10"Behave"
kristiana says
I appreciate your reviews. Keep it up!
I don't have any opinion of her yet - I thought (from little glimpses) that maybe she would bore me, but I could be wrong.
1234chainsaw says
I mainly agree that CH made herself a favor in diversifying her songs, arrangements, and tempoes, but that the song material is uneven and the album's not as cohesive as Grey Will Fade. And yet still I found the album in heavy rotation in my CD player in March, when it was released, and again just now in the past couple of weeks. In a review, I myself might also have singled out the gliding, slightly baroque balladry in "Again" and "Dawn Treader" for a special mention.
mktackabery says
nice to hear some more of this album, I still can't decide if I want to get it . . . Behave has been on heavy rotation on my iPod, but I think the uneveness of her style does bug me. Perhaps it is because she is just exploring so many different directions . . . dunno.
Augusts1 says
I really like the vid/song for 'Behave' & I can hear the XTC influence in there. Anyone who mimics XTC can't be too bad, lol! 'I Want You To Know' has a real '50s Buddy Holly rock n roll sound to it as well as some Adam & The Ants. Cool stuff. Had heard of her but not any of her music.
Jammy Jeff says
Pekka - I think it's a good album Pekka without any reservation, but I think my expectation was probably too high based on the excellence of her debut. I'm actually wondering if she toyed over these songs for too long and spent too much time engineering them because the type of music that best suits her is snappy, light and fun packed.
Michelle - I think you've nailed it. She is exploring new styles and for that she must be applauded, but as we all know sometimes that hunt for something different can lead to some blips in content. I'll still buy her next album because at least she's not formulated Pop.
CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY – THE DEEP BLUE (2007)Charlotte made the correct decision to relinquish her Guitar duties with Ash 3 years ago, and her two solo releases prove that sonically she was grounded in the more experimental Power Pop than her former charges who have recently become a more mainstream Rock act. Her debut, “Grey Will Fade” was packed with punchy, upbeat and often funny odes to relationships and quirky English life. It was an accumulation of life long note book jottings, pulled together hastily to mark her new career, and frankly the album benefited from the said immediacy. Her new album “The Deep Blue” is obviously a more considered affair, enabling the Londoner and her ex Captain Beefheart member and producer Eric Feldman to fully develop the songs with deeper arrangements and more intricately textured instrumental accompaniment. The songs are slowed down a notch to portray her new found attention to detail, for greater harmonics, and this new approach works reasonably well for the majority of the collection even if there is a tendency to stifle the natural jauntiness. The instrumental opener “Cousteau” perfectly exemplifies this new approach, swirling and whooshing like the tide, with Charlotte’s multi tracked “oohs” drifting on the warm ocean breeze, its density sweeping with a hypnotic appeal. The lead off single, “Behave” is Hatherley at her best. A killer lead guitar melody sucks you in to a song of irresistible pop originality, with hints of her XTC influences laced throughout. “I Want You To Know” and “Very Young” are fun Pop/Punk, and bear the closest relationship with her debut. Under closer scrutiny, there isn’t the consistent quality songwriting that brought us the excellent singles “Bastardo”, “Summer” and “Kim Wilde” and overall this isn’t as entertaining as “Grey Will Fade”, but there’s still enough distinctive musical ambition and creative unpredictability to keep “The Deep Blue” from bombing. That said, some of the slower numbers, particularly “Love’s Young Dream”, “Roll Over” and “It Isn’t Over” are pedestrian Pop, awaiting some form of ignition spark that never arrives. A shame really because there’s obviously every intention from the artist to offer up a deliberate progressive transition to avoid complete repetition of a theme, but somewhere along the route a small proportion of the product slipped through the quality control department unchecked.Charlotte Hatherley is one of the few British female artists bravely wading into uncharted waters, and although “The Deep Blue” doesn’t cause as big a splash as her debut, it remains authentic, warm and inviting enough to reel you in.7/10"Behave"
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