Cathy Davey has done what she can to distance herself from the tag of Singer-Songwriter, and considering the sisterhood’s espousal of the works of Dido, Katey Melua and others Bland Before Their Years, it’s hardly surprising that anyone should want to cut a space for themselves outside of the S-S/female fronted band misnomers which say nothing about anything. With even the best analytical intentions however, Something Ilk is still a slippery fish.
Creamed from a catalogue of songs built up over a course of years, Davey’s dedication to her art is well evidenced; Where most bands struggle to fill 45 minutes Davey crosses the 60 minute marker leaving you some 14 songs the richer and completes a sonic lap of honour via a barely hidden secret track.
Spiky and cerebral with a good dose of gut wrenching truth woven deep into the tissue of every song, Something Ilk still manages to displays the heights of quirk dEUS lost when Stef Kami Carlens departed to nest permanently with Zita Swoon. Davey’s instinct for an indie and angular sideways approach to pop writing (think Bjork, Kate Bush et al) never fails to fascinate. It’s the familiar made strange and wonderful. Playful, honest and dark in turns – Davey’s insular and reclusive approach has provided her with space for singular expression in amongst the more common grind of verse and worse.
’Come Over’, ‘Cold Man’s Nightmare’ and ‘Clean and Neat’ provide the classic pop hooks which marks them as the golden calves to be offered up as sacrificial chart fodder, but taking each song as a bit part from the whole is like splitting up the family silver. Setting the pop nuggets apart from the witchy wonder of ‘Old Man Rain’, the Coxon-esque crunch of slow burner ‘Hammer Head’ or the girlish and terrifying foot-tapper ‘Swing It’ just seems Wrong.
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The serious air to ‘Go Make It’ and sundrenched qualities of ‘Sugar’ play hard off against ‘Trade Secret’ (which recently won a Grammy award for “Best Use of A Kazoo Since ‘Cross-Town Traffic’”). Meanwhile and mainstream, penultimate song ‘About Time’ is full of gentle tarnished romance and sweeping strings, whilst closing track ‘Mine for Keeps’ will break your heart clean in two. It’s The Bends all over again and counterpointing on a grand scale.
Yup there’s scope and depth enough here to see you through winter. Something Ilk rewards repeated listening in spades. Dig in.
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