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Rating: Perhaps this writing of mine will seem more like a declaration of love than a review, perhaps to some it will appear cloying and mawkish, and if so, I apologize in advance, but it is not easy to talk about an album that meant so much to me without completely giving in to my feelings. It is difficult for me to remain clear-headed and detached when talking about my little queen, the one who holds the very personal scepter of the female voice of my soul, but it is worth trying.
After the raw, colorful, and enthusiastic debut "Desperate Character" in 1981 and a much-anticipated and very admirable, albeit a bit naive, second album "Kite" in 1989, Kirsty MacColl hits the winning stroke in 1991 with "Electric Landlady", never was a title more misleading. The wonderful plain and simple singer-songwriter's eclectic creativity is expressed at the height of her flair, her voice is a true wonder, her lyrics are much more mature and aware compared to the past, without losing any of her candid and immediate spontaneity, and her stylistic range reaches its maximum openness. "Electric Landlady", despite the title, is the highest expression of the most folk, dreamy, disillusioned, melancholic, cheerful, in love Kirsty, an artist who knows how to speak about moods and emotions, reaching straight to my heart like no other.
Among the twelve multicolored petals forming this wonderful flower that is "Electric Landlady", some stand out more among the soft shades of the album, such as "Walking Down Madison". Co-written with Johnny Marr and originally intended for Alison Moyet, Kirsty perfectly performs this bright example of rock/hip-hop crossover, enriched by Marr's biting guitar and Aniff Cousins's closing rap, a song of extraordinary class and quite avant-garde for those years, the Latin flavor of "My Affair", a delightful mariachi brass serenade and a frank declaration of independence and freedom, and the first clear example of her love for the sounds and colors of America south of the Rio Grande, which would lead her years later to create another masterpiece like "Tropical Brainstorm" and a sharp "Lying Down", a mid-tempo with almost alternative rock sounds tending to rock-blues, characterized by a pulsing bass and moderately distorted guitars, the hardest song ever written by Kirsty MacColl, ennobled by a fascinating and at times cryptic lyric.
Despite these electric surges, this remains an album of rare and exquisite sweetness. Despite the title, the sounds are predominantly acoustic, the atmosphere is one of refined and bittersweet pop-folk, ranging from a melancholic and enveloping bossa nova like "We'll Never Pass This Way Again" to one of Kirsty's first loves, country, well represented by the lively "All I Ever Wanted", closed by an incisive harmonica solo. Ultimately, this is precisely the winning card of "Electric Landlady", the ability to combine sweetness and reflection with lightness and cheerfulness in order to create a smooth, harmonious and perfectly balanced album: carefree episodes (at least on the surface) like "He Never Mentioned Love" and the lilting folk of "The Hardest Word" alternate with poignant emotional peaks like "The One And Only", marked with the melancholic and unmistakable touch of friends Pogues, in memory of the "Fairytale Of New York" times. The dreamy and enchanting alt-country serenade of "Maybe It's Imaginary", adorned with impeccable fiddle, and the anti-militarist ballad "Children Of The Revolution", another collaboration with Johnny Marr, both link thematically and with semi-electric sounds to the previous album "Kite". Finally, there is the pearl among pearls, a song that fully represents the spirit of "Electric Landlady": "Halloween", a wonderful melody, dreamy, a bit melancholy but at the same time light and engaging, enriched by winds, strings, and electric guitar, conveying a beautiful message: never forget the child within us, never relinquish innocence, fantasy, joy of living, because it's impossible to escape from dreams.
Now, I have no idea what the objective value of "Electric Landlady" is according to the qualified opinion of some esteemed professor and music critic, nor am I interested in knowing it. I only know that for me this is the best album of 1991, perhaps just flights of fancy of a sensitive guy, but the microcosm of Kirsty MacColl, and of this album in particular, perfectly coincides with mine. Everything in "Electric Landlady", primarily that soft, light, and expressive voice, but also the sounds, lyrics, arrangements, every little nuance feels as if it belongs to me intimately. This is not an album I admire from a detached listener's distance like many other great masterpieces, but I seem to live it firsthand every time I listen to it, and it is always a wonderful sensation.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Halloween (03:38)
(Kirsty MacColl/Mark E.Nevin)
I must have fallen on my feet
A hundred times or more
I heard the wind blow down the street
The knocking at the door
But there was no one there
Though I looked everywhere
So was it all a dream?
Oh Halloween
The spirits of the past
The costumes and the masks
The shipwrecks and the ghosts
From up and down the coast
They've all come back to see
If we were meant to be
We can't escape our dreams
Oh Halloween
You must have followed me back home
And hid behind my back
No one could find me on their own
I'm off the beaten track
Well I was scared before
But I'm afraid no more
And nothing's as it seems
Halloween
The spirits of the past
The costumes and the masks
To me they don't disguise
The presence in your eyes
They turn their heads to see
If we were meant to be
A nightmare or a dream
Oh Halloween
05 My Affair (05:25)
(Kirsty MacColl/Mark E.Nevin)
When I was just a child
My folks would drive me wild
They'd spy upon my every move
Until it drove me to despair
They told me what to wear
They told me not to cut my hair
But that's all over now
I had to tell them anyhow
It's my affair
Where I go and what I do
It's my affair oh yeah
It's my affair
It's up to me and not to you
It's my affair
That's the way I want to keep it
I kissed the boy in secret
Thrilled me to the very core
I couldn't stop I wanted more and
I didn't hear the door and
They caught me on the floor
With my affair
And when we first got wed
We used to stay in bed
All day and night all night and day
We bedded half our lives away
But that's all over now
We move in higher circles
Chomping through the upper crust
I couldn't see you for the dust
And then you met that girl
Who left you with your money spent
And now it's no concern of yours
If I sleep with the President
It's my affair
And if I don't come home tonight
It's my affair alright
It's my affair
Who I see is up to me
It's my affair
That's how I want to keep it
I kiss the boys in secret
Hiding in the parking lot
Is just as far as I have got but
If the phone should ring and
There's no one there
Then it's my affair
Eso es asunto de ella
Donde va y lo que hace
Well it's all over now
You've seen the last of me
And I don't have to put up with you
Giving me the third degree
So you go on your way
And don't come sneaking round the back door
Trying to get yourself back in
Where you're not wanted anymore
It's my affair
Shoodoloowapbob
Shoodoloowap
It's my affair oh yeah
It's my affair
Who I see is up to me
It's my affair
That's how I want to keep it
I kiss the boys in secret
Making eyes at perfect strangers
I know that it could be dangerous
So if the phone should ring and
There's no one there then it's my affair
Donde va y lo que hace
Si yo vivo mi vida
Feliz y contenta
A nadie eso le importa
Donde va y lo que hace
Si mi queda afuera toda la noche
Es asunto mio
Donde va y lo que hace
Es que sufrí por ese amór
Que un día me traicionó
Donde va y lo que hace
Who I see is up to me-o
Es mi asunto a quien yo veo
07 He Never Mentioned Love (03:53)
(Kirsty MacColl/Jem Finer)
I couldn't hear him when he called to me
I couldn't hear him at all you see
He was down the road away from me
How could I know his answer?
I couldn't hear him 'though he shouted hard
I couldn't hear him in my own backyard
The trains were rattling by above
He never mentioned love
He may have held my hand
When we were walking down the street
He talked about all kinds of things
But none of them were him and me
He looked into my eyes
Just as an airplane roared above
Said something about football
But he never mentioned love
I never heard him all the times he yelled
I never heard him if he tried to tell me
If my memory serves me well
He never mentioned love
I never hurt him 'though he says I did
I never hurt him but I die a bit
Each time he passes on the street
He never mentions love
I used to call him every night
And pray that he was home
I couldn't bear the feeling
I might have to live my life alone
But now my phone is off the hook
The word came from above
It told me I was wasting time
If he never mentioned love
I never heard him if he said he cared
I never heard him, I kept my claws bared
I never heard the things he says he said
He never mentioned he was scared
I never heard him when he asked of love
I never heard him as the skies above
Chucked buckets on the both of us
He never mentioned love
So if I seem hardhearted
I would like the court to note
He never mentioned love to me
In anything he wrote
And if I seem coldblooded
I should like to tell the judge
In all the time I knew this man
He never spoke of love
(or if he did)
I never heard him when he called to me
I never heard him at all you see
He was down the line away from me
He never mentioned L.U.V.
I never hurt him 'though he says I did
I never hurt him I just die a bit
Each time we meet upon the street
We never mention love
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