Martina Topley Bird - The Blue God
Having been lavished with praise for her last effort Quixotic former Tricky collaborator and one time Mercury Music Prize nominee Martina Topley Bird returns from a four year hiatus with new album The Blue God a smouldering electro-pop effort.
Flanked by strings and delicate electronics Bird’s husky, sexy voice takes centre stage throughout in what is ostensibly as polished and well produced an album as you’ll hear all year. All twelve songs are good, 'Poison' you might even go as far as to say is great, but you can’t help but feel Bird is being kept on a tight leash throughout. And herein lies the one major flaw of The Blue God; it’s controlled to the point of losing all of its vibrancy. Bird is a major talent, she’s already proven this but what she needs to do is take the bull by the horns and really unleash her undoubtedly wonderful voice at full capacity.
Minor criticisms aside there are more than enough positives across the twelve tracks. Kicking off proceedings with the tantalizingly seductive 'Phoenix' - Bird leaves you in no doubt whatsoever that this album is going to be the sort of sultry slow burner that has every chance of lingering on in your head long after the CD’s stopped playing.
Think of her sound as a cross between that of Mazzy Star and Morcheeba; a lush, atmospheric merging of soulful female vocals and laid back trip hop beats and rhythms. It’s perfect music for decadent late nights, with 'Poison' in particular a darkly nocturnal musical experience. 'Baby Blue' might not be the best song ever written but it too evokes images of moonlit nights, teak floorboards, leather upholstery, and having to use your switch card because there’s no way the £20 in your wallet is going to cover the cost of the red wine you’ve just purchased. And yes whilst lyrics aren’t the focus of Birds music it would be criminal not to acknowledge her wry take on travelling fairgrounds in recent single 'Carnies'.
This is late night listening for lubricated lounge lizards and you know what that in itself isn’t a bad thing at all, but she’ll need to use that voice of hers to better effect next time if she’s going to reach the level of performance she’s capable of. And trust me there’s enough talent on display here to suggest she’s capable of a lot.