The Quietus
Many of us are sitting in dread anticipation of the deluge of Covid lockdown records, books and daubings that are surely going to appear in the coming months. Surely few, if any, will be as good as Glory Days, a quick-released thirteen track album by Heather Leigh, recorded “with the window open” in her Glasgow flat this past April.
Best known for her solo albums of pedal steel and collaborations with Peter Brötzmann, this record feels like a bold steop into new territory. It’s certainly broad and bold in its sound and scope. 'All I Do Is Lust' is like the murmurings of a disco diva’s soul drifting and eternally bereft through a cobwebbed cellar where once pumped men danced and fucked. Similarly, the clattering electronic rhythms underpinning Leigh’s housey vocal refrain in ‘Take Just A Little’ make it a prototype for a club banger that’ll never get to tickle the dancefloor.
'Death Switch' is a delicate tender lo-fi folk song, dreamlike with birdsong and traffic audible in the background, ‘Island’ a simple yet tender work of drone. A quickly-recorded sketch it might be, but this is Heather Leigh’s strongest and most accessible work yet, and bodes well for ever more glorious days next time around.
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Sun Jul 12 16:37:11 GMT 2020