‘Cycling in Stilettos’ is ABI HERCULES' second self produced album, and showcases the Londoner’s talent for writing songs that are immediately catchy, humorous, and down to earth. There is a lot going on musically here as well, the tracks vary from Jazz, doo wop, soul and reggae, and the subject matter of the CD is a relationship break up, which looks at all sides and emotions without for a minute wallowing in self-pity or sorrow.
The first track ‘Skinny Bitch’ is listed on Abi’s bio as her anthem, and starts with a nice jazz guitar/swing beat, supplemented with stax horns: “Please don’t tell me I’m too thin, I was born this way if you know what I mean/ I’m not trying to be some kind of anorexic beauty queen. I’m just thin and quite tall/ Just me.” The song is directed at all those who hate slender people: - “Someone sighs about my thighs every single day.” Sings Abi, making light of the situation.
As a starter, I thought this was a great choice of track, having never heard of Abi before, this sounded to my ears not a million miles from the music of Fairground Attraction, with the vocals of someone with an excellent range.
Following this is the laid back reggae groove of ‘Man Child’, nothing to do with the Neneh Cherry song of the same title, instead it's an emotional outpouring against an ex: - “Because you lied for two years five months, and six days too long.” This song works although the lyrical content at first seems at odds with the rhythm.
‘Don’t Go Ronnie’ is a jazzy, slightly doo wop ballad, which isn’t quite what it seems. Ronnie is not the ex, but Abi’s cat who ran out when Abi’s ex showed up on the scene!
Where Abi really hits her stride is ‘Perfect Problems, a piano ballad, the lyrics are perfectly apt, reflecting on how relationships disintegrate with a lack of understanding: - “You said don’t treat me like a child, but I was only trying to help/ Wasn’t meant to be some kind of mental trickery.” Here, Abi’s wry observations capture the moments that everyone has at one or more times gone through: “You flip just like a coin. I try to memorise the bending rules.”
Following this, ‘Technicoloured Love’ keeps up the quality. This is an almost hybrid, with jazz styled strum and reggae style keys. It works though, and with a chorus of “Make love every day – yeh”, I don’t think that many will disagree with that!
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‘Back to Crack’ is the sort of song that I could well see someone like Billy Bragg singing, it has that straight talking street suss, and with a melody that at times verges upon music hall, it hits the spot. ‘It’s All About You’ with violin and piano, is a sort of anti-ballad, the lyrics are full of bitterness with a relationship going down the pan: -
“And I shall shout from the highest place what you’ve done to me/ You can feel truly proud of your lasting legacy.” I really enjoyed this one, and thought that the lyrics were really heartfelt, which added to the listening experience.
In fact the only track on the album which I thought was a clear miss was ‘Jezabel’, with an almost samba beat and guitar and pan pipes it just feels that too much has been thrown into the pot, and it comes across like an over-seasoned stew.
The album does close on a high, with ‘Gone’ which is done in the style of a 1950s piano ballad. The lyrics here are heart aching: - “Our world was snuggling under a blanket of snow, beautiful snow/ I wanted to tell you, but you were gone/ Charlie took his first step then a second, then more and more/ I wanted to tell you but you were gone.”
On the plus side, here you have an album chock full of good tunes and excellent lyric writing that comes straight from the heart, tied to a very good voice that can hit smoky jazz and soul equally. My own personal feeling is that Abi would hit a far greater audience if she were to just stick within those genres. Having said that, this album is certainly worth a listen, and I think she’d be dynamite live.
Abi Hercules online
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