Fleshwounds

Fleshwounds is the debut solo album from Skin, erstwhile lead vocalist with the now expired Britpop band, Skunk Anansie. In this collection of mainly slow, raw indie ballads with a strong hint of soul, Skin swops her former intensity for a calmer, more introspective sound that suits her themes of intimacy with self and others, the break-up of relationships and that which forms to take their place.

With Fleshwounds, Skin moves away from the kind of songs that she penned for Skunk Anansie – such as ‘Little Baby Swastika’ and ‘Intellectualise My Blackness’ – which dealt with overtly political themes like racism and prejudice. However, the indie-rock element, while muted, is still very much here, with strong loud guitar featuring prominently. ‘Faithfulness’ is my favourite track, much faster and more experimental than the rest, with some great ironic lines (“watching as my ego breaks your fall”). After a dip in quality in the middle, the album picks up at track nine with the excellent ‘As Long As That’s True’, a vulnerable, slow rock piece about the complex emotions of relationship break-downs, its piquancy heightened by a passionate guitar chorus.

Fleshwounds leads out with another couple of tunes in similar vein, leaving the impression of an interesting though far from spectacular album