Tag Archives: Amy Winehouse

03.21.21
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PleasePrettyLea – Birthday Card

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned‘ is a phrase that’s been around for donkey’s years. The etymology of the phrase can be traced back to the late 17th century where its commonly attributed to playwright, William Congreve. But the concept of the hysterical woman, crazy in love and taking rejection into her own hands won’t have been a new one for a theatre-goer who would have recognised the character traits of the mourning woman from many of their cultural reference points. 

In the latest single from PleasePrettyLea, we’re treated to a dark and delicious tale of revenge. The ‘Birthday Card’ that has been purchased for a cruel lover lays charred in a heap of ash whilst PrettyLea reflects on the path that has been taken to get to this point. Lyrically taut but graphic and explicit, Pretty Lea refers back to moments of stalking outside hotel rooms and controlling aspects of the couple’s sexual liaisons. It’s delightfully disturbing and weirdly enticing – perfect for a Sunday morning blow-out. 

Sound-wise, PleasePrettyLea appears to draw influence from a number of sources. At its core, Birthday Card is a jazzy, trip-hop upgrade; you can hear bits of Amy Winehouse in the delivery but so too Kate Bush and good, old traditional nursery rhyme. It certainly marks out PleasePrettyLea (from Bewdley, Worcestershire) as one to watch moving forward. There’s promise of other characters and manifestations before the year is out. 

And that’s made easier by the kit that PrettyLea now has. “The highlight (of the year) so far is that I now have my own home set up so I can lay down vocals from the comfort of my home.“, she says in our brief e-mail exchange. “I’m just getting ready to release my new single.”

This makes Sonic Breakfast very happy. Have a great Sunday and, if it’s your birthday today, the card is in the post.

03.09.21
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Penny Roox – Mean

I bet that we’ve all seen enough in our lives to realise that the old adage, ‘Treat them mean, keep them keen’, has more than a semblance of truth. We’ve surely been left frustrated by friends who keep returning to partners who are clearly no good for them whilst an obvious match whimpers and wilts in the corner. Indeed, we might have even recognised such behaviour in ourselves with our predilection for the bad boy or the femme fatale.

Over the years, scientists with bigger brains than mine have tried (and sometimes failed) to explain why we love those that it’s harder to. And Robert Cialdini, author of ‘The Scarcity Principle’, probably hits the nail on head when suggesting that it works on the idea of ‘reactance’. We don’t like to be told no or be limited in any way. When we think we are going to miss out, be rejected, or be denied what we want, we react by wanting what we have been denied even more and trying even harder to get it.

Others have suggested that things are more valued by us if we’ve had to work harder to get them. And I can see some truth in that. But it does all seem ridiculously complicated when the nice boy or the girl next door waits patiently for their love to be reciprocated.

 

Penny Roox’s debut single, ‘Mean’, focuses on this phenomenon. The rising star from the Netherlands tells more in E-mail conversation. “Mean isn’t about someone in particular being mean to me.“, she says. “I wrote this song inspired by a conversation with one of my closest friends after a night out. It’s about always falling for the dickheads instead of the nice guys, about the thrill of rejection.”

‘Mean’ is a fine showcase of Penny’s talent. It has a vintage feel; a dash of jazz in a pop serenade. It’s a slice of Springfield (Dusty) and a drizzle of Winehouse (Amy) that help to create the Roox whole. It’ll come as no surprise to regular readers of Sonic Breakfast that I love it. Perhaps if I was ambivalent about ‘Mean’, it would be more of a recommendation?

Penny lets me know about the state of play in the Netherlands. “The pandemic is still very real here,with everything still closed.“, she says. “I haven’t played a proper full band show for over a year now, but it gave me the peace of mind to finally release Mean and work on my own music. I made sure to write and record as much as possible so the plans of 2021 will be releasing a lot and hopefully start playing again.”

Applying the logic from above, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about your Tuesday and I don’t care one jot if you like this song or not. 

01.11.21
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Michelle Daly – In My Dreams

You appear in my dream again. Intermittently, you do so (here). In this latest edition, we find ourselves on a coffee-tasting tour. We hop into an open-top vintage car (make and model unknown) and drive around the local hostelries to taste the flavour of their beans.

I’m a coffee novice but I can still distinguish between styles and types. The flavours are real. As I sip from one cup, the bitter roasted taste lingers on my tongue proudly announcing itself as a top dog of coffee. Let’s not forget that this is a dream. How is this even possible?

We’re young and carefree. We always are in this dream. The wind breezes through our hair ( I still have hair) as we travel from venue to venue. The radio is turned up loud and it plays a variety of hits from the eighties. Sometimes, we sing along if a tune catches our attention but mostly, despite the volume, it is background fodder. Instead, we chatter and laugh. We’re always happy in this dream even though we both know how it will end by now. 

As we pull into another place for one last coffee, I reach across to give you one last kiss. Our lips almost touch this time but before they do I wake. The pattern is familiar.

 

Michelle Daly, the Irish born and Berlin based songwriter, released the second single from a forthcoming album at the back end of 2020. ‘In My Dreams’ is a stylish and sultry soulful stroll through Michelle’s own land of dreams. She’s got a cracking voice for jazz classics and so the comparisons with Winehouse are inevitably drawn. It’s a tune that gives me lots of pleasure and I’m sure it will you.

We find Michelle contemplating the end of a brief flirtation. Or perhaps it’s the final days of a longer term relationship. Whatever, we know for sure that Michelle is coming to terms with the fact that she has put more into this than she’s been getting out. She’s been betrayed and is now the woman spurned. And she’s not crying into her coffee but working out ways to cope. 

I pity my friends who are unable to dream. They tell me, as if it’s a badge of honour, that they don’t dream or, if they do, they can’t remember them. I actively cultivate mine. Who would not want to wake with a hazy and happy memory from your sleep time? It strikes me that it’s even more important to have vibrant and wild dreams right now when our daily horizons are so streamlined.

Happy Monday all. 

 
04.30.19
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Bernardo – The Waiting Room – April 29th 2019

It’s a Monday evening and this week’s Airbnb is south of the river. I’m tempted to stay here and chill for it is quite a trek north to Stoke Newington’s Waiting Room. I’ve been meaning to get there for some time but gigs I’ve been keen on have clashed with others; there’s rarely a shortage in this town. 

Tonight though Bernardo plays a free show at The Waiting Room in celebration of the release of her Panic Prayers EP. The EP has come out on cassette format. For a fiver, it clearly represents something of a bargain even if I’m pretty sure that I no longer have the technology on which to play it. 

Bernardo’s on-line profile is growing if not fully-formed. I’m guessing that Bernardo is a surname; searches suggest that the confident, enticing individual who takes to the stage in a ‘Betahoven’ T-shirt with a Fender Jaguar guitar to play a jazz-pop opener is called Sonia. “The band have decided to sit this one out”, she declares.

Bernardo’s band duly join her from the next number; there’s four of them (five if you include Alfie, the excellent trumpet player who joins a couple of songs later). They’re a confident bunch, clearly well versed in jazz and funk progressions. In the ‘brand new one’ which might well be called ‘Almost A Mother’, they’re given space to wig out with solo endeavour. Bernardo is impressed. “I often just play alone and it’s great to have this band“, she acknowledges.

It’s hard to get away from Winehouse comparisons. Bernardo’s vocal occupies a similar space and the songs appear to toy with heartbreak and the darker side of love. Bernardo is compelling to watch on the stage. She rolls her eyes , the lids of which are painted in a pinky red shadow, towards her hairline in playful pose whilst smiling and connecting with her crowd. “We’re going to jazz it up a bit now“, says Bernardo before launching into a version of ‘One Inch Punch’. Truth is that proceedings had already been a tad jazzy prior to that.

Just as this short show began with a solo song from Bernardo so it ends in similar fashion. The band leave the stage and two stripped-back tunes bring things to a close. ‘Sunday heartbreak matinee’ stands out, a chilled comedown of a track after a more urgent weekend.

There’s little doubt that Bernardo is one to watch – and I’m glad I made the effort to head north to do so.