Helen McCookerybook releases her latest album `Showtunes from the Shadows` this month. Helen was the bass player and co-singer with the Chefs during the late seventies and early eighties. After The Chefs broke up she formed Helen and the Horns before undertaking a solo career. Helen is also an academic who’s written on women in punk and post-punk and also made a film, “Revenge of the She-Punks” with Gina Birch.
This latest release features contributions from Gina Birch (The Raincoats), Winston Blissett (Massive Attack), Terry Edwards (The Higsons, Gallon Drunk), Jack Hayter, James McCallum (The Chefs), Robert Rotifer, and Lester Square (The Monochrome Set).
The album begins with the delightfully upbeat `Three Cheers For Toytown` with honeyed vocals and some delicious trumpet tones. An imaginary idyllic place to grow up in where the sun always shines, possibly a tongue in cheek reflection to times when life appeared so much better and serene. The melodic `The Ginger Line` begins with a spoken word intro before harmonised vocals tell of a journey taken on this line to a city that these days feels unfamiliar and everyday thoughts that come to mind. There`s a delightful melodica shared throughout which adds to that sense of wistfulness.
A strummed guitar leads us through `Reaching For Hope` a reflection on an enduring relationship that seems almost too good to be true. A search on the world wide web seemed to point to `Metaforte` possibly being a tablet used to treat type 2 diabetes. But the lyrics refer to a relationship which appears to be on the slide recounted over a rhythmic waltz like tune.
`It Wasn’t Me` has a wonderfully dreamlike ambience with the narrator reiterating their innocence of an incident that they seem to be accused of. There`s an almost hypnotic sense to `Almost There` another meditative, tranquil offering.
I felt that `Sixties Guy` conjured up that folk-pop mood of The Seekers mid-sixties hit `Georgy Girl`. There was a kind of nursery rhyme texture to `Puppet` which although appearing lyrically naïve, I’m sure had a much more metaphorical meaning.
`Margaux Interlude` is indeed a brief laid back instrumental respite between numbers. The stripped back `Spy` is more or less what the title suggests, a tale about an undercover agent but here it`s a female operative as opposed to the usual male gendered media portrayal.
I read that the wonderfully titled `The Porter Rose At Dawn` is a song inspired by Gina Arnold’s Raymond Chandler project, a collection of stories and songs based on a list of the novelist and screenwriter`s unused titles. It falls somewhere between a waltz and a country tune with some charming lap steel from Jack Hayter. The final offering comes with `Send In The Detectives` a final contemplative composition with strummed and picked guitar chords with complementing harmonies, a number to ease us out on with a warm glow.
`Showtunes from the Shadows` is wonderfully idiosyncratic and Helen`s distinctive vocals really draw you into its depths and layers. The songs shared are gentle and tender but with a subtle thought provoking lyrical underbite at times. If you`ve got forty minutes to spare, I can guarantee that `Showtunes from the Shadows` is worth the time spent to give it a whirl and will leave you with a smile on your face and set you up for the rest of the day.
Rating 8.5/10
