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Review: 'OWEN, JUDITH'
'Somebody's Child'   

-  Label: 'Twanky Records'
-  Genre: 'Soul' -  Release Date: '6th May 2016'-  Catalogue No: 'TWR 00149'

Our Rating:
Somebody's Child is Judith Owen's second album and, as with her debut Ebb & Flow, it has been produced with an impressive set of legendary Session musicians including Leland Sklar, Waddy Wachtel and Russell Kunkel as well as Pedro Segundo and Gabriella Swallow among others.

The album opens with the slow piano, cello and violin rumination on how close we often are to being the poor homeless person on the streets and in particular a pregnant lady dressed in plastic bags. It is a very considered and thought-provoking song that sounds far more beautiful than its subject matter with a wonderful neo-classical feel to it like they are trying to blend Chamber pop with very serious issues.

Send Me A Line ups the tempo a little. It's a song about love as usual going wrong over the sort of Piano-led pop that used to be the preserve of early Billy Joel but crossed with some sort of re-working for the theme to Rhoda. At least that's what my ears detected which is odd as I haven't watched any old episodes of that in years.

Mystery is all about the mystery of what makes us love the ones we love over a very restrained and laid-back backing that very gently builds and feels like it should be playing over the end credits of a soppy romantic film.

Tell All Your Children Has a good message wrapped up in a very low-key, almost Talking Book-esque backing. With such carefully placed guitar flourishes it really works nicely and thankfully has enough going on to make me listen to the vocals.

We Give In reminds me of Barb Jungr crossed with Rickie Lee Jones but with some great brass stabs on the chorus which really make it sound like a very 1970's soulful Jazz song but with some obvious modern production to bring out its contemporary side.

No More Goodbyes has the sort of sad strings that make a song about death and departure work really well. It's a fitting goodbye to her father it ends up being a fitting eulogy and for me this version works much better than did live as I could focus on the lyrics a bit more making it more likely to be the tearjerker it is intended to be.

Arianne might be about the paranoia of living in a divided city like Berlin prior to the wall coming down but the laid back jazz backing and whispered vocals seem at odds with the lyrical content. It reminds me of how Gil Scott-Heron could often get away with very serious words in very nice laid back tunes.

Judith's cover of Roxy Music's More Than This may have been recorded at Bryan Ferry's studio (and on his piano) but that still doesn't make me want to hear this rather than the original. For me, this is far too slow and gentle like someone tinkling on the piano in a restaurant in the background.

That's why I Love My Baby is another very Ricki Lee Jones-esque song with its lyrics about how her hubby (none other than Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap or Harry Shearer if you prefer) doesn't play by the romantic's playbook. It has a cool strolling around feel to it.

I Know Where The Sun Shines has an almost spiritual feel to it with a slow piano part that a bit of a Nina Simone kind of air. It's a very cool Sunday morning kind of song. Josephine is also a slow, slow song about someone who walks out one day and doesn't come back, leaves no forwarding address etc. This one is slow, sad and contemplative.

Aquarius is the second cover on the album and works better than More Than This does for me. Judith's take on this classic from Hair comes on like they want to be either Archie Shepp or Yusuf Lateef both at their most laid back and with vocals that at times remind me of June Tyson. All it's lacking is someone trying to play the Harp like Alice Coltrane.

The Album closes with The Rain Is Gonna Fall which features some wonderful strings under Judith's vocals to evoke the rain coming down as the song builds and then falls away. It's a nice gentle end to a very laid back and gentle album in many respects which nonetheless manages to hit harder lyrically than its musical content might initially suggest.

For many people this album will be a fine dinner party accompaniment but is well worth listening to in other settings and stands up well on its own terms.


Find out more at Judith Owen online
  author: simonovitch

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OWEN, JUDITH - Somebody's Child