Skye
Keeping Secrets

Taking risks in life is not always easy, this is a banal and objective truth. Sometimes the biggest risk is not setting limits, or looking back and finding the good in the most difficult memories. Perhaps this is what the English singer-songwriter Sky Edwards thought before completing "Keeping Secrets", her second solo work.

However, "Keeping Secrets" is not just a return to the past. In fact, the Anglo-Jamaican singer-songwriter found herself "forced" (due to the failure of her last two record labels) to work on "Keeping Secrets" free from any record company hand, acquiring the rights to the album, and placing it only online (as far as I understand). Perhaps it's because of this, because of the presence of Alexis Smith (Rufus Wainwright) and Ivor Guest (Grace Jones' Hurricane), or because of her now reached artistic maturity, maybe it's the experience, or maybe it was the desire to break away from purely autobiographical texts (very present in the previous "Mind How You Go"), that "Keeping Secrets" sounds definitely good. I would add that it is beautiful, the perfect balance between soft melodies and experimentation (that never ends up affecting the melodic openness), I would add that it had been months since something made me feel this good, perhaps since "Third" by Portishead, or "Hurricane" by Jones.

"I Believe" is so beautiful that it baffles, with that melodic openness, that barely touched piano, the expanded sound, and that voice, which over the years is more expressive than ever. Edwards has stated that the pieces of "Keeping Secrets" tell stories invented by her, partly taken from the world around and partly from her personal experience; she later added that almost all have a sexual nature, and perhaps this explains everything. This explains the warm embrace of "Boo Hoo" with that gentle rhythm, that so slimy verse, the warm voice in the deeper tones, and the final openness that resembles the most sincere look, the deepest and unexpected words. The subdued, dark, and sad "Not Broken" grows with the voice, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, some violins, and light and repetitive beats, drawing a dark, wavy, and cold sea, the most painful abandonment. The "folky" "Clock To Stop" seems to follow in its footsteps, but with more light, becoming thus a light and soft ballad, bright and simple. Another gem. Similar in style is the airy "Wrong Alright", with an almost country rhythm, epic at the end, bubbles of hope and warm sighs. The power of simplicity.

In reality, "Keeping Secrets" offers us a new Skye, which is evident in "The Shape I'm In", a track with heavy instrumentation (could it be drum machine?), featuring a fast and heavy rhythm, a more spacious refrain, and a fun electronic play at the end. "Exhale" has an ethnic flavor and is certainly the track that most recalls the experience with Morcheeba, and for this reason, I consider it the weakest of the ten contained in "Keeping Secrets". The insistent "Almost Killed Me", while showing originality, risks becoming too "radio-friendly", especially in the "nananana" refrain.

The two gems (if we exclude the splendid "I Believe") seem to be the closing "Maybe To Spain", and the very dark "Monsters Demons". The former showcases decidedly cinematic sounds, in a vibrant and colorful sound funnel, a soft voice and perhaps the "sexual" peak I anticipated earlier. The lyrics then denote a sharp sense of self-irony. "Monster Demons" is a decidedly unique track, a dark process that leads to the awareness that we are the first architects of our own evils. A dark song, reminiscent of the "Mezzanine" sound, with that bass in the background, and those "shouting" beats. A voice to say the least "unique".

Ok, I think I've got the point across. Talk to you soon. :)