Sarah Gillespie’s ‘Half Cut’ album (Pastiche Records) is a poetic battle cry unto the Universe from a transatlantic Titaness who slays namby-pamby prose with a cerebral flick of her songcraft pen.
The UK/US singer-songwriter is an internationally acclaimed polymathic presence who fearlessly dives into blues/folk/jazz/Americana oceans ballasted by a lyrical brick of candour to lay amongst melodic oyster pearls. With a sharp-witted lyricism oft compared to Tom Waits and fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, Sarah Gillespie is a streetwise poetic powerhouse.
Recorded at Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studios (birthplace of David Bowie’s 1977 ‘Heroes’ album), ‘Half Cut’ is deliciously bolstered by the accompanying musical prowess of Gillespie’s trusty speed-dial band of heavyweight jazz sidekicks: Chris Montague (guitar and mandolin), Tom Cawley (piano and harmonium), Conor Chaplin (bass) Kit Downes (piano and organ) and James Maddren (drums).
Opening with the narrative tale of ‘Molly of the Salt Sea’ (co-written with Chris Montague) the album reels the listener in with the red-herring comfort blanket of a deceptively winsome Johnny ‘n’ Molly love story.
However, faster than you can say “drench your cake in Marsala wine,” the honeymoon shagpile’s pulled from under us and we’re plunged overboard into a plot-twist chasm of domestic abuse and tragedy akin to Scottish murder-ballad and Othello-Desdemona tropes.
Sarah Gillespie revels in yin-yang storytelling to mischievously destabilise any preconceived ideas garnered from beauteous guitar intros. The titular ‘Half Cut’ track presents a melancholic meander through a “polystyrene-robed” love story; juxtaposed against a biting, protest-ballad undercurrent referencing world events.
Apposite gut-punch lyrics pepper co-composer Montague’s romantic guitar accompaniment with artistically astute incongruity. The polarity of the piece serves to strengthen the emotional impact of percussive lines such as: “Body-cam shots of his last howl to God are pixelated. History is a pendulum smashing his neck in.”
Ensconced in beat-poetry sensibility, Gillespie is a formidable feminine visionary who holds her inquisitively ornate looking glass to the mouth of Gaia to check she’s still breathing under the transactional weight of human atrocity.
As a woman standing in fifth dimension, fifth-album power, Gillespie appears unafraid of reflexive and collective shadow exploration. Possessing the assured air of a songwriter who has raised, purified and alchemised her own shadows from the depths, she empathetically swivels her artistic torchlight on the growling underbelly of human nature.
Despite tackling some caustic subjects, even the most difficult observations of depraved society feel palatable, thanks to a medicinal chaser of syntactical sorcery, sage wordsmithery and luscious musical arrangement.
Having opened the album with devastatingly impactful ballad aplomb, Gillespie straddles her Latin dynamo bike to fire up and energise the seductively up-tempo and fun ‘18th Holy Curse.’ This buoyant, coin-flipping romp through cartography and moonshine provides entertaining release, as well as space for the stellar band to flourish on cheeky instrumentals.
‘The Baggage Carousel’ is an Imelda May-esque rockabilly “rumpus” that sees Gillespie hilariously reflecting on the entrails of past relational issues with her inimitable flair for lyrically harpooning humour. ‘Queen’ is another perkily acerbic relationship examiner cloaked in jovial country majesty.
‘Gloria’ is one of the shining stars that deserves special recognition alongside the singles ‘Molly of the Salt Sea’ and ‘Half Cut.’ Stylistically subtle in approach, the arrangement of ‘Gloria’ allows Gillespie’s vocals to soar from expressively rich vulnerability to heart-wrenching primal peaks. A deeply moving spiritual exchange of emotive energy.
The album’s finale of ‘Red Winds,’ complete with gentle vocals and jazz-piano interludes, diminishes to a guitar outro that lingers in the ether with a sense of longing for true resolution. With a subtle to-be-continued ellipsis hanging in the eardrums, we’re left with the anticipatory wonder of future musical treats sure to explode from the brilliant, creatrix cranium of Sarah Gillespie.
LISTEN to the ‘Half Cut’ album on your preferred listening platform.
‘Half Cut’ is Sarah Gillespie’s fifth studio album. She also has three EPs and a ‘Queen Ithaca Blues’ poetry book to her name. Having received critical plaudits and significant media attention for her previous albums, Gillespie has toured extensively in Europe and the USA, headlining major venues and festivals.
Sarah Gillespie is a multi-hyphenate singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, artist, poet and writer. She is the founder of independent record label Pastiche Records and champions female artist development through her Create Now Academy 1:1 mentoring and transformational MOMENTUM group-mentoring programmes.
Review by Alex Reffell – Singer-songwriter, composer, creative voyager and music journalist.
