| 
album // Polly Scattergood
Two surprising things: first, according
to interviews with Polly Scattergood, that really
is her surname. Apparently it's an old English name. Second, Polly's
self-titled debut album was produced by Simon Fisher Turner.
Now, over the years I've become quite accustomed to the very different
musical strategies Turner has employed, though having interviewed
him twice I'm still no clearer on precisely what makes him tick.
Certainly you have to do a lot of scratching around among his diverse
back catalogue to find anything quite like what emerges on Polly
Scattergood, which is about as close to leftfield pop as I've
known him to come since the days of The King Of Luxembourg
and even then that alias wasn't remotely like the varied styles
deployed here.
My copy of this album was bought in an independent
Rough Trade-apeing record shop in Brighton. Just like in Rough Trade,
the CD had a supposedly helpful sticker attached to the case which
described Polly as being ideal for those who like Florence &
The Machine. I can't honestly think of a worse reference point personally,
but then again I'm not remotely interested in Florence's music.
Florence has often been compared to Kate Bush, mainly because I
guess all music reviewing has to focus on comparisons. If you want
mine, I'd say Polly is more like Tori Amos, whose songs and general
delivery always seemed to me to be teetering on the edge of some
sort of emotional breakdown.
For a host of reasons, I do not wish at all to speculate
on whether what Polly is singing about on this album is drawn from
bitter personal experience, but I can only hope not; the ten songs
on Polly Scattergood are filled with a sense of dismaying
emotional frankness and appear to be, mostly, the collected private
thoughts of a very bruised individual indeed, and so I hope that
this is merely our Polly adopting a very specific role. There are
references to someone not being like her father, taking sleeping
pills, needles, loveless mistakes, dark places, a body giving up
too soon and a doctor telling her to sing a happy song – and
that's all in the first five minutes of the album's opener 'I Hate
You', a track which begins with cracked electronics, becomes an
almost euphoric piece driven by guitars, piano and pounded drums,
while the ending drops away into cloying, dark noises and an echoing,
manic Polly trying to stop someone looking at other girls by stopping
eating, doing half-hinted-at things and so on. Apparently this song
was originally called 'Happy Song', though goodness knows that's
stretching it.
That sense of us, the collected listeners, somehow
voyeuristically listening in to Polly's innermost thoughts, resentments,
fears and desires is occasionally uncomfortable. 'Untitled 27',
which finds Polly muttering 'I love you' and 'I miss
you' and 'where are you' and 'I'm lost' and
'sleep' in the background over delicate piano, whining
noises and a febrile electronic beat which occasionally takes on
a waltz pace. Ruminations on suicidal tendencies, hurting to touch,
hurting to be here but still wanting to be wherever there is, all
delivered in the most achingly poignant voice, conspire to make
this one of the most openly bleak pieces of music I've ever heard,
and that's before you factor in the sound of a a heart monitor flatlining
at the very end. I shudder even thinking about it.
To emphasise this overall mood, even Polly's vocal
is delivered in a cracked, fragile style, often rising up rapturously
before falling back sharply and effortlessly into a near whisper
or a angular falsetto. Try achieving that, Florence Welch.
The harrowing 'I Am Strong' finds Polly doing that in almost every
line of this song, which seems to be a list of generally positive
affirmations set to shimmering synths, pulsing electronic beats
and delicate, emotional piano, a backdrop which highlights Turner's
expertise at sound design. 'Please Don't Touch' sounds, on face
value, like a piece of upbeat, joyous Sixties-influenced jangly
guitar and piano pop, yet still talks about losing her mind, broken
fingers, begging someone to stop someone sinister from taking her
away or breaking her. It also includes one of the most humorously
nonsensical lyrics with 'fighting like a soldier over skinny
jeans and pick 'n mix', although that does make remind me that
I'm too old for both of those things.
'Unforgiving Arms' sounds like gorgeous, emotional
electronic pop music with crashing emotive electronic guitar, something
like a Dubstar, but those lyrics again are anything but cheerful.
In spite of this, there's enough of an upbeat sound to this to make
you try just hard enough to ignore the lyrics which detail rejection,
a partner who cannot be gotten through to; listen to the words too
closely and you'll feel thoroughly miserable again.
'Poem Song' also featured as the B-side to 'I Hate
The Way', the second single to be taken from Polly Scattergood,
and is mostly a fragile ballad for Polly's voice (which occasionally
touches on the bizarre delivery that Björk has perfected over
the years) and piano. The addition of sympathetic synths and mournful
strings gives this a strident quality, particularly as Polly sings
one of her most positive lyrics – 'time takes many tears away'
– but the verses deal with the reason for those tears, dealing
with someone who isn't prepared to stick with the singer through
whatever it was she was going through. The album's closer, 'Breathe
In Breathe Out', mines the same emotional seam, matching stately
piano with sprinkles of bird noises and pained, resigned vocals.
In fairness, a decent amount of what Polly is singing
about makes no sense to me at all (what on earth is 'Nitrogen Pink'
all about? Or do I not want to know?), but mostly you are left feeling
like you should seek her out, offer her a cuddle or a shoulder to
cry on, tell her it's all going to be okay, that not everyone in
the world is as vindictive as that; only for her to condemn you
for staring at other girls in a part-written song she already has
going round in her head. Polly Scattergood was mixed by
Mute stalwart Gareth Jones, while
Daniel Miller himself in credited as co-producing
the album. The project was preceded by two singles – 'Nitrogen
Pink' and 'I Hate The Way' – while 'Another Too Endless',
'Please Don't Touch' and 'Bunny Club' were released after the album.
cd/i/li:
1. I Hate The Way
2. Other Too Endless
3. Untitled 27
4. Please Don't Touch
5. I Am Strong
6. Unforgiving Arms
7. Poem Song
8. Bunny Club
9. Nitrogen Pink
10. Breathe In Breathe Out
iTunes deluxe edition bonus videos:
11. Polly Scattergood (A Short Film)
12. Nitrogen Pink (Treacle Session)
13. Untitled 27 (Treacle Session)
14. Please Don't Touch (Treacle Session)
single // Nitrogen Pink
'Nitrogen Pink' was Polly Scattergood's
first single for Mute, released around eighteen
months before her self-titled album. The single was produced by
Simon Fisher Turner and mixed by Gareth
Jones. To describe 'Nitrogen Pink' as harrowing would probably
be an adjective too far, but there's certainly something uncomfortable
about this song, even though – like 'Other Too Endless' below
– it sounds relatively upbeat. Polly
sings about having pills for breakfast, rotting memories, reflections
on tragedy, general disappointments; her voice veers from icy detachment
to effortless soaring, while the music gradually moves from quiet,
polite piano to a frantic, dense wall of sound – buzzing synths,
waves of crashing electric guitar, motorik drumming and layers of
sawed violin. Like most of Scattergood's music, 'Nitrogen Pink'
is filled with a rich sense of anguish, the frantic sounds giving
this a blurry, world-passing-the-singer-by quality before the whole
thing collapses into a bed of grainy electronics.
The rough demo of 'Corridor' on the B-side finds
Polly quietly musing over tentative, home-grown synths, her gentle
voice evoking a not-unfamiliar theme of heartbreak and sadness.
'I wish I could cry in front of you,' she murmurs, perhaps
not aware that this type of cloying emotional frankness could elicit
precisely that emotional response from her listeners. She might
as well have sung 'I wish you could cry in front of me.'
'Corridor' has never been 'properly' recorded; whilst it is nice
to think how a fully-realised version might sound, it also feels
like something of a privilege to be able to hear Polly captured
in sparse, pre-studio surroundings.
10"/i:
A. Nitrogen Pink
B. Corridor (Home Demo)
single // I Hate The Way
Review forthcoming.
10"/i:
A. I Hate The Way
B. Poem Song
single // Other Too Endless
'Other Too Endless' was one of the highlight's of
Polly Scattergood's first album for Mute.
Musically uplifting, that vague sense of euphoria masks a typically
cracked vocal performance from our Polly, the combination of her
delicate, pained voice with Simon Fisher Turner's
high gloss pop sounds sounding, on paper, like something that shouldn't
work, but somehow – thankfully – it does. Simon Fisher
Turner is here operating in unusual territory for someone best known
as a sterling sound desginer and soundtrack composer, his backdrop
containing icy and memorable keyboards riffs while a solid 4/4 rhythm
ticks away underneath. 'I made the biggest mistake,' sings
Polly mournfully, delivering lines about getting wasted, everyone
being on pills, and trying not to feel anything. As with most of
the themes on the album, it's deep, harrowing stuff.
The digital release of 'Other Too Endless' contains
a shortened single version as well as a remix by Erasure's
Vince Clarke. Here Clarke rips up the original
version of the track and replaces it with a insistent, punchy dancefloor
rhythm, the word 'endless' being repeated and processed
into a pastiche of Kraftwerk's 'Europe Endless'
from Trans-Europe Express. A typically memorable Vince
middle eight riff replaces the chilled noises of Turner's original,
the whole thing taking the form of an urgent hard house floor-filler.
B-side 'Crystal Breaks' finds Polly singing about
drinking too much gin and locking painful memories away in a box,
then burying that box way below ground. The song is one of extreme
contrasts – the verses are quiet and delicate, with sensitive
piano and brushed snares sitting behind Scattergood's whispered
vocal, whereas the choruses and middle eight arrive with howling
anger, layers of pounded drums and frenzied guitar leaving the listener
with the impression that perhaps that box of hurt isn't that well
buried after all.
i:
1. Other Too Endless (Single Version)
2. Crystal Breaks
3. Other Too Endless (Vince Clarke Remix)
single // Please Don't Touch
Review forthcoming.
i:
1. Please Don't Touch (Single Version)
2. Please Don't Touch (The Golden Filter Remix)
3. Please Don't Touch
4. Number 24
5. Remove All Traces (Demo)
single // Bunny Club
Review forthcoming.
i:
1. Bunny Club (The Chatterley's Single Mix)
2. Unforgiving Arms (Single Edit)
3. Nitrogen Pink (Tara Busch's Analog Suicide Mix)
4. Please Don't Touch (Demo Version)
5. Nitrogen Pink (Demo Version)
|
