Album Review: Eleanor McEvoy - Naked Music

McEvoy’s twelfth studio album involves a tie-in with British visual artist Chris Gollon, who provided the surrealist artwork for the cover. (Several of his paintings also feature on the lyric insert, and a London gallery exhibition launch is also planned, with McEvoy performing live at the event.)

As the title here suggests, the songs on Naked Music are stripped-down and bare-boned, with just the minimum of accompaniment and arrangement – mainly just finger-picked or strummed guitar, both acoustic and electric. It provides the chance to hear McEvoy’s voice and words in more or less splendid isolation – no bad thing and a nice alternative to her usually multi-instrumental arrangements. And, as is always the case with McEvoy’s albums, the recording and mastering is of hugely impressive, audiophile quality.

Some of the tunes will be familiar to long-time fans. The jazz-tinged ‘Deliver Me’ and the bluesy ‘The Thought Of You’ appeared on the singer’s acclaimed I’d Rather Go Blonde album, while her power-pop credentials are fully intact on an acoustic version of ‘Please Heart, You’re Killing Me’, another gem from her past. Elsewhere, the whimsical ‘Look Like Me’ ponders the tribulations of keeping up with changing fashions, while ‘Wrong So Wrong’ is a gorgeously sensual song with almost X-rated lyrics: “His fingers are skilled... it’s bad, so bad, I want it so much”.

‘Lubbock Woman’ demonstrates McEvoy’s ease with a country tune, while ‘The DJ’ is a fine tribute to a late-night radio presenter (unnamed), and is performed completely acapella. The singer switches to electric piano on poignant ballad ‘Half Out Of Habit’, a tale of weary resignation, and another highlight on what is an essential album for fans.

Key Track: 'Half Out Of Habit'

Out Feb 7

7/10