If, like me, HELEN BOULDING is a name on the tip of the tongue, yet you can't quite place it, then have a gander at her CV. She's been around for some time, but had previously taken more of a backseat role, working as a songwriter for hire and having a hand in writing hits for the likes of Annie Lennox, Shakespear's Sister (with Marcella Detroit) and Natalie Imbruglia (you remember "Torn", surely?).
So it's taken a while for Ms.Boulding to drift into the limelight, but with her recent "Housework" EP, a lengthy UK tour supporting Glenn Tilbrook and now this new single, it appears she's really getting the bit between her teeth.
And the wordily-monikered "I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know What I Need" suggests she's got a good grasp of what still cuts a deal in the radio-friendly stakes. Indeed, this is bright, poppy, soulful and steadily ambition-straddling stuff with the Top 40 very much in its' telescopic sights. Not too surprisingly, you discover Youth is the man in the producer's chair, and it's the same slowburning magic he conjured for Embrace's second coming and Kubb's excellent debut album that he summons again here. Hell, even the drums alone sound like the walls of Jericho tumbling!
So, after this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, nothing-left-to-chance approach, discovering the understated delights of the B-side "Hazel Eyes" is especially pleasing. This time co-writing with Squeeze's Chris Difford and (bizarrely) Rick Wright from Pink Floyd, Boulding really hits paydirt, with the lonely, Tindersticks-ish piano intro working beautifully as a mood generator for her big ballad voice. Lyrically, the tit for tat emotional blows bear all the scars of an excellent Difford draft (e.g: "She never thought he would sleep around and lie through his teeth....he left me for the forbidden fruit that fell down at his feet") and overall it reminds me of the hard-bitten drama Difford achieved when writing "Boy With A Problem" with Elvis Costello.
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Of course it's not B-sides that sell singles(or 'tracks', or whatever the feck they'rew called these days), but this writer still believes you can tell a lot about an artist's raison d'etre by flipping over, so fair play to Helen Boulding, who clearly has strength in depth to her credit. Not to mention an address book to die for.
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