Skin
Fleshwounds

THE REVIEW

"You were a dream to me
Now you’re nothing but a heart
that bleeds
I’ll wash you off and carry on"

A wound to the heart, an intimate, invisible pain, to be overcome with that inner strength that resides in the core of every living being. An inner healing to be executed with care. A cure to restart with new strength and a new life.

Skin, the vocalist of Skunk Anansie, starts again from her wounds, "exposed" in the title of her debut solo album. A new look for the black singer, less tank-girl and more Grace Jones, to be admired on the album cover while the tracks of the new album play slowly.

Yes, slowly. This might be the sore point of the CD. The powerful voice of Deborah Anne Dyer gets a little lost in the slow pace of the melodies, which didn’t happen in the days of SA with songs like "Charity" or "Brazen". In the slow passages, it becomes almost hoarse, dragged, in short, it doesn’t fully convince.

Written in collaboration with her companion in effort Len Arran and recorded in Belgium, bringing along from Skunk only the bassist Cass, the album was recorded away from the bustling sounds (and tabloids) of the United Kingdom.

A Skin laid bare and defenseless in the opening song of the album "Faithfulness”:

"Common sense
Can slap me in the face
And yet I calm disent
Embarrassed by your obvious
Indifference
Disgusted at the same time by it all
Watching as my ego breaks your fall"

The single that is now all over the radio "Trashed" is a beautiful ballad, the ideal track to attract "the curious" to the album. It is indeed also the best track on the album, at least musically.

I also really like “Lost” and “Till Morning” which concludes the album.

Overall, the album does not convince and for long stretches, it bores. I preferred her collaborations with Maxim (Carmen Queasy).

Yawning.