{"id":63388,"date":"2020-06-26T16:40:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T15:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=63388"},"modified":"2020-06-26T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T15:41:12","slug":"review-of-savages-singer-jehnny-beths-debut-solo-album-to-love-is-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2020\/06\/review-of-savages-singer-jehnny-beths-debut-solo-album-to-love-is-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS – Review of Savages’ Singer Jehnny Beth’s Debut Solo Album ‘To Love is To Live’"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Savages ‘on a break’, frontwoman Jehnny Beth returns with her long-awaited debut solo album.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Eclectic, but knitted together with familar lyrical themes and preoccupations, To Love Is To Live <\/strong><\/em>sees the arrival of Jehnny Beth the artist – as opposed to the snarling post-punk figurehead.<\/h4>\n

Sex, lust and sin are to the fore throughout, but countered by a delicate vulnerability and touching snapshots of home and childhood.<\/p>\n

Opener\u00a0I Am<\/strong><\/em> sets out her stall right off the bat – a low growl announcing “I am naked all the time”.<\/p>\n

It’s a well chosen phrase, as few musicians are as ready to bear their soul with such compelling frankness.<\/p>\n

There are orchestral flourishes and horns before a simple piano line complements Jehnny’s vocal.<\/p>\n

“You’re safe is my danger,” she intones with typical perversity. It’s a line she’ll return to as the album progesses.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of tracks, Heroine<\/span> <\/strong><\/em><\/a>and most notably\u00a0I’m The Man – <\/strong><\/em>with its pounding drums, wild guitars and insane keyboards – which do sound a bit like Savages.<\/p>\n

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To Love Is To Live cover art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, for the most part, Jehnny wisely steers clear of the formula which brought Mercury Prize nominations for Silence Yourself <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and Adore Life<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

There’s a marked\u00a0preponderance of keyboards and electronica over screaming distorted guitars, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is easy listening.<\/p>\n

How Could You<\/strong><\/em>, for example, is about as extreme as it gets.<\/p>\n

It starts like a full on glitch fest and then just get weirder as Jehnny and iDLES’<\/strong> Joe Talbot<\/strong> repeat the title line over and over, before darkly remarking “I am the one who eats”.<\/p>\n

Ferocious, frenzied and frightening – it’s an ear drum exploder as unhinged and exciting as anything dreamt up by mavericks like Aphex Twin <\/strong>or Jim Thirlwell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Rooms\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>multi-tracked voices assail the listener, while a jazzy piano backing gives way to breathing, footsteps and a haunting almost bluesy refrain \u201cyou don\u2019t tell me how it ends boy, \u2018cos I\u2019ve seen it all\u2019.<\/p>\n

It’s an album, brimming with ideas, most of which are successful.<\/p>\n

Innocence<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>introduces another pervasive theme, rebellion against the repression of Catholic guilt.<\/p>\n

To a cacophony of keyboards resembling the sirens of the cityscape she portrays, Jehnny spits ” I was raised Catholic and they think it\u2019s bad form to see man as a piece of shit”.<\/p>\n