Hollie Stephenson
Hollie Stephenson
(Membran / D.S.E.)
Just 18 years old and with a hatful of songs, Stephenson now releases her first full album under the watchful eye of Eurythmics and Tourists star Dave Stewart. In fact circumstances meant that Stewart was in England when Hollie launched the album to a full St James Studio over in Victoria , London, playing acoustic and electric guitar on a couple of numbers. For that occasion, Stephenson’s regular and lively band were joined by Adam Brown on trumpet and Loren Hignall on fluid sax. How handy it is when one of the PR guys is in a group with a horn section!
It’s no great secret that Stephenson’s main (recent) influence is the late Amy Winehouse and her delivery often has that same stepping croak that informed many of Winehouse’s songs. The main thing that strikes the listener however is the apparent pain and heartbreak this lass must have gone through already to come up with lyrics like these! She sings not of fairies, castles and civil rights…this is the netherworld of useless boyfriends, jealousy, unreliable pals, unrequited love, imbalanced romance, dysfunctional relationships and crashing liaisons. I know nothing of what it is to be an attractive teenage girl, of course – but I do know that men can be useless uncaring gits (been told enough times…) and here the full story is thrown in your face. Armed with a microphone rather than an Uzi, these feckless chaps survive to rue their mistakes and Stephenson has another composition in the canon. Soul-style arrangements are it goes without saying the perfect vehicle for the catharsis of getting all this out of your system as songs and the band have a sure-footed if very 60s-rooted platform ready for the selections.
Among the highlights are the drum-led opener ‘Pointless Rebellion’, the steady cruise of the horns through Broken Heart Strings, the solemn roll through ‘Dried Out Lies’ where the horns have a clipped ska phrasing and Hollie gives us her best vocal of the collection over languid piano. ‘Leave Her Be’ has churchy organ chording and a crisp tempo, Stephenson sounding her own girl in the delivery, albeit with an AW tinge. ‘Revelation’ has a great groove, not a million miles from Nina Simone, on a song of tenderness; ‘Old Friend’ takes its time over walking bass whilst ‘Confession’ has been a live favourite for a while.
A rockier feel takes ‘Man Of Few Words’ towards Motown territory and would make a good single; ‘My Own Tears’ has quasi-Studio One horns and clanking piano. ‘Sunday Morning’ has a mellow Commodores pace, with Hollie singing clearly and with fine feel for the words. ‘Breathlessly’ has an almost Latin ambience with lovely acoustic guitar. Bonus cut ‘Hard Way’ is skank reggae with electric guitar on delay playing call and response with the horns over percussion and bumping organ. By far my favourite inclusion and again a good vocal
Not aimed at the likes of me, I nevertheless do get what’s going on here and the nation’s streets are full of young female contemporaries of Stephenson’s who are on her emotional wavelength.
Pete Sargeant
Hollie Stephenson’s self-titled and debut album is out on Friday 6th May 2016 on Membran/D.S.E. Hollie will be performing at St James Theatre Studio, London, United Kingdom on Wednesday 11th May 2016. Tickets are priced at £15 each and are available here: http://bit.ly/1SV1MOa
For more information visit Hollie’s official website here: http://bit.ly/1pDUDHG
( Feature Image Credited to Kieran White at KW Media.* Thanks Dave C and Gary L….and to Dave S for the update on Mudbone, post-show)
