Despite various reservations, I find all three songs on local singer-songwriter Maria Ilett‘s latest CD charming, and in one case, absolutely adorable. The style is a little hard to pin down, being a compound of folky pop in the vein of the late Kirsty McColl or Beth Orton, but with a big role played by low-fi programming and analogue synths. In general, these two elements sit nicely together, but less happy is Ilett’s vocal style, which invokes the two superb artists mentioned above, but is also contaminated by the chavvy affectation of Lily Allen and Kate Nash, particularly on the opening ‘Sit On the Sun’. The strengths of this track are centred on the excellent production values, which expertly combine acoustic guitar, strings, synthesisers and multiple vocal lines. Ilett has an outstandingly pretty voice, which really doesn’t need to be Estuarised for the sake of the Croyden tower-block market. The glottal stops which disfigure such already poor lines as ‘When I went away from here, I left you for granted’ are annoying and alien, and Ilett wisely cuts back on them on the other two songs.
Next up, ‘Hit the Blue’ is marvellous, laid-back but oddly funky. The production here is centred on one of those rhythm sections so confident that they can leave a whole lot of stuff out-check the massive gaps in the bass during the verses, which really allow the layered vocals space to breathe. The deliberately out-of-tune guitar sounds like it is being played out of a telephone speaker, but I like the audacity of the idea; guitarists should be kept in their place. Ilett’s performance is warm, intuitive and beguiling.
Good as this, the outstanding number is the closing ‘Stars’, the transfiguring daydream of a bored secretary yearning for her weekend trip to Barcelona. For some reason, the feel of the song recalls that of the disturbing video to the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Golden Path’, in which an overstretched office worker is driven mad and transmigrated via his photocopier into some sort of hippy Eden, full of colour, light and love. The magic is conjured by a perfect combination of eternal melody, brilliant use of programmed drums, which seem to propel us (along with Ilett’s protagonist) into the air, and various strings and synth-pads which act to blot out the prosaic reality of working life. The piano coda at the end,as the dream disintegrates, is heart-breaking.
Excellent as Maria Ilett’s songs are, and lovely as her voice is (when she’s not in thrall to the already-dated Nash/Allen style), the real star of this record is the producer, who has helped her create something new and wonderful. ‘Stars’ in particular will haunt my mind for a long time.