Catherine Anne Davies & Bernard Butler
★★★★ In Memory Of My Feelings NEEDLE MYTHOLOGY. CD/DL/LP
One they made earlier: when former Suede man met The Anchoress. WITH HER perfect pop voice evoking Chrissie Hynde, Catherine Anne Davies was fielding interest in her 2016 debut as The Anchoress when, mindful of Bernard Butler’s success producing Duffy, one major label suggested she try writing with him. Partly inspired by P.J. Harvey’s work with John Parish, the experimental glam-pop songs they hatched in 14 days soon veered wildly offpiste, languishing on Butler’s hard-drive until writer and
Needle Mythology founder Pete Paphides invited their release. Pleasingly, In Memory Of My Feelings is an often terrific record with unexpected arrangements, Butler’s feral guitars and Davies’s perfect diction distinguishing the theatrical I Know, the lacerating stomp of Sabotage (Looks So Easy), and the muscular crunch of Judas. All this, and a spare, newly recorded cover of Madonna’s Live To Tell.
James McNair