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Review: 'TheAudience'
'TheAudience'   

-  Label: 'Past Night From Glasgow'
-  Genre: 'Nineties' -  Release Date: '22.7.22.'-  Catalogue No: 'PNFG29'

Our Rating:
This is a double vinyl album re-issue for TheAudience's only album that originally came out in 1998 and helped to launch Sophie Ellis-Bextors career. She formed the band with Billy Reeves from The Congregation. Back when this was first out, I heard the singles and turned my nose up at them, as they weren't right for old gits like me back then, well I'm older and wiser and have really enjoyed giving TheAudience a proper listen. Sophie is also currently promoting her new cookbook written with her husband.

The album opens with The Pessimist Is Never Disappointed and for many of us this is the bands biggest hit and certainly the song I know best on this album, with Sophie Ellis-Bextor's deadpan vocals drily observing how success is always knocked in the British press, that if you never want to be let down then being a pessimist is a good way to go, this song has grown on me over the years like any good hit will do.

Now That You Are 18 feels almost like Sophie is whispering sweet nothings into your ears, about someone who is now of an age to do things that they shouldn't have before, the guitars and keyboard act as punctuation, almost as the newfound freedoms of an 18-year-old are celebrated.

Mr. Doasyouwouldbedoneby forgets to space the words out, like it was written in txt speak, on this laid-back lush song that's full of advice for said gent who drinks a bit too much and doesn’t follow his own advice.

I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough) is a teenage tale of love and betrayal and getting up to stuff you might have been too young to be doing, with some delicious irony in the lyrics as she tries to deflect some of the advances, as the guitars get angrier and rather fuzzy as she hopes to get her way.

Keep In Touch is wry and observational chamber pop, that almost feels dated being at the cusp of the social media age, being from just before it became easy to keep in touch, with all sorts of friends from every part of your life, in ways not possible before. The strings add a touch of sadness to friendships lost along the way.

I Got The Wherewithal is a slow sad tale of a drunken accident and the aftermath that slowly swells and rises and Sophie gives out the stars.

Harry Don't Fetch The Water has a neo-classical intro and then stop start guitars that burst in and out as Sophie slowly enunciates the vocals with crystal clarity to make sure why she's telling Harry that, as the guitars eventually battle it out with the keyboards this needs a few listens for the musical madness towards the end of the song.

If You Can't Do It When Your Young; When Can You Do It is a great title and question, that Sophies intoxicating vocals whisper into your ear to make sure you know not to miss out and do whatever you really want to do, like freak out musically and have a damn good time doing it.

Running Out Of Space is a slightly off centre indie-pop rock song as Sophie tries to find enough time for everything she's got going on, while considering if she or her friends are drunk enough to sing What A Waste.

You Get What You Deserve is a kitchen sink drama song about wondering if you should let someone be in your clique or not, should you be part of what's going on or not, with lush orchestration and a soaring guitar solo, this like most of the album is rather sophisticated and a little bit dreamy.

The More There Is To Do has a slow acoustic guitar opening as Sophie asks a few good questions that I hope by now she's found the answers too.

Bells For David Keenen is a quite literal description of this song musically, as the bells chime out. Shoebox Song seems to be a goodbye letter to someone, who her memories of are about to be put into a shoebox and filed away, before it really gets going and she rants at him, like the last argument as you part ways. The insistence of the piano line underneath is quite infectious as she feel stuck in that Shoebox they moved into together now she is alone.

The album closes with How's That a slow late-night kiss off that isn't about catching a cricket ball, this almost strays into Mazzy Star territory only Sophies vocals are far cleaner. It also has a magnificently slowly building instrumental outro.

Find out more at https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/collections/past-night-from-glasgow/products/theaudience-theaudience https://www.facebook.com/SophieEllisBextor https://www.facebook.com/therealtheaudience/


  author: simonovitch

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