POLLY PAULUSMA'S critically-acclaimed debut album "Scissors In My Pocket" has - rightly - opened doors for her. Aside from undertaking high profile tours with Bob Dylan, Jamie Cullum and, er, Gary Jules, she's been scoring consistently in the UK indie charts and even garnering praise from Michael Parkinson of all people.
Polly's caught the ear of influential technical people as well, because "Over The Hill" - the third single from "Scissors..." comes with a remix/ partial re-recording from Tore Johansson, who already has influential names such as New Order, The Cardigans and Franz "Omnipresent" Ferdinand under his belt.
All good for the CV, but to be honest "Over The Hill" sounds under-par after his nipping and tucking. He's got Polly to add piano and harmonium and a re-recorded vocal which is higher pitched and only serves to neuter the devil-may-care feel of the original, not to mention whip it into something lighter and fluffier than it ought to be.
As if to suggest the record company weren't entirely convinced themselves, the original album version is also present and correct. In this form, with Polly's voice commanding and the rustic mandolin back where it should be, "Over The Hill" scores: not least the way Polly sings the seductive lines: "I've got nothing for you but kisses and a pocketful of rye/ But I see our unborn children in the apple of your eye." Which is even feistier than it appears on the page, actually.
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Just to reinforce the subtle emotional impact of Polly's songs, the EP rounds off with a starker, piano'n'sparse strings take of album highlight "Perfect 4/4." An emotional hospital drama, it has the clinical impact of a scraping scalpel when Paulusma sings "each cough rips through you, it wounds you/ and flatlines cry wolf on the screen" and reminds you very quickly just how superior this girl is in a world where the coffee table set deem twerps like Amy Winehouse acceptable.
So, great single but unneccessary remix. Sod the influential (erm) knob twiddlers and let the girl do her own thing. She doesn't need to be moulded.
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