Season of the Hurricane

An Omagh girl of Methodist farming background, with an unassuming determination to match, Juliet Turner has already come some distance from the straightforward and endearingly earnest folk thrust of her roughly recorded debut, Let’s Hear It For Pizza.
Her second album, the pop influenced Burn The Black Suit, was a far more accomplished work that steadily filtered into the national consciousness. The kind of slow burner that confirms that an audience has discovered an artist who speaks for them in some subtle – and often mysterious – way, without hype or hysteria, it sold over 50,000 copies in Ireland, and established the Turner name as one to contend with in the international arena.
That album was released way back in 2000, so there has been no undue rush on her part to capitalise on its success. That this was a wise decision becomes clear from the first sounds that reverberate from the speakers, announcing the intro to the opening track here, ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’. The influence of dub and reggae is immediately striking – the feel is sinuous and strong, a stalking groove underscoring lyrics that convey a Sting-like sense of watching with intent.
What’s clear is that Turner has come into her voice as a writer. From ‘Business As Usual’ with its smart title and big chorus to the dark sexual under currents of ‘Vampire’ – “Moan foghorn moan, for the leaving of the boat/you know that she’s a vampire but you still offer her your throat” – there is a mastery here of the diverse forms of pop. She moves from sombre, introspective and self-doubting to confident, euphoric and expansive. She takes the listener on a journey through the maze of her own feelings and ambitions, anxieties and aspirations. There is a considered, almost bookish quality, at times, which suggests the Joni Mitchell of Blue, Leonard Cohen or Elvis Costello. But there is nothing pretentious or self-regarding either.
Juliet Turner is neither fashionable nor hip. She is a genuine outsider in music biz terms, belonging to no clique or wave. It is one of the reasons I like her. She has stuck to her guns and done it her own honest, hard-working way. That Northern twang in her voice could easily have been eliminated but it’s there because she is what she is – and what you see is what you get. As it happens, what you get is both substantial and honeyed, cerebral food and ear candy combined in a recipe that’s been finished and presented with a dash of finesse.
The melodies are memorable and winning and there is a pleasure in the playing, which suggests a band that are at home with the boss. Here the hi-hat cuts through the mix keeping irresistible time. There, a Hammond slides around the voice adding warmth and colour. The balance of things is finely judged and weighted. Through it all, the hooks catch hold and you’re humming: “I know for a while it felt like everything beautiful was burning.”
That first single from the album, ‘Everything Beautiful Is Burning’, was an apposite foretaste. With a melodic nod to ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ it is pop with an edge, its hints of paranoia – representing a deeper malaise that skulks just below the surface in most people’s hearts right now – being dispelled by a rising sense of optimism. There are bright and impressively vivid passages which ensure that the characters at play won’t easily be forgotten. “You jumped all the red lights,” she sings, “Thought up a wild design/Swore like a trooper/Shone like a Rubenstein.”
The writing throughout is studded with similarly memorable vignettes. The picture forms of a woman who is taking risks, demanding space, wanting love, but not prepared to take second best. There is none of the acquiesence that pop music demands of its girls. It is probably this genuine sense of a life being lived through the songs which gives Juliet Turner her special appeal to women who are looking for something more, both of themselves and from the world.
The stand-out track is ‘1987’, a song about young love – and young lust – that is a certain single and will become a live favourite. “I’ve had many lovers, London to LA/I’d move in on their jewelled lives/Hang on every word they’d say/Looking for an anchor/Needing somewhere to belong/I’d twist and turn to please them/Till the girl they knew was gone.”
But in music, the girl has remained true. Juliet Turner is from a different place than most of the occupants of the high seats at the top table of Irish rock, but her voice and her experience are no less valid for that.
With Season Of The Hurricane, she has earned a place at that table. She is in it for the long haul. Respect.