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SINGLE REVIEW: Alice & The Majesty - I Could Love You (Sunday Best) For a
woman with folk credibility, Alice McLaughlin manages to sound surprisingly
modern. The electric overtures she achieves using layered guitars and bass
provide the true climax and emotional centre for her second track with
Sunday Best, and they contrast her grainy, wizened voice with youthful
exuberance. 'I Could Love You' is a bittersweet love song almost child-like
in its naivete. Yet, despite its ultimate vulnerability, it leaves an upbeat
impression on listeners. Reminiscent of singer-songstresses like Regina
Spektor and Tori Amos, the main attraction of Alice's track isn't the
lyrics, which undoubtedly form the safe foundations on which her song is
built, but her instruments, which evoke mellow tension and authentic
emotion. This type of music never strives for commercial success for the
sake of success, but it will find receptive audiences as deconstructed
pop-rock and country-folk come into their own as legitimate crossbred
genres. EO Release Date: 4 February 2008 - CMU Daily
Discography
2008 - I Could Love You: 7" & download - Sunday Best Recordings
2007 - Dolly Figured: 7" & download - Sunday Best Recordings
2005 - The Eastcote Sessions: mini CD album & download - Wherewithal Records.
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Bio
Alice and the Majesty is the nom de guerre of artist and songwriter Alice McLaughlin, created to encompass herself and that transition from sometime solo artist towards the band and sound that has previously only existed in her head. Alice writes and sings magnificent, soulful pop, tinged with blues and folk, evoking the fierce and the fragile and crossing mainstream appeal with leftfield spirit. Passion and spontaneity are at the heart of her lyrics and music. Alice lived a simple, no frills life in north London’s canal boat community for some years. She has her feet firmly on dry land now, but has kept the narrowboat on as a studio for recording her demos.
Like many an adventurer with wanderlust, Alice spent some of her early twenties traveling South East Asia with her trusty battered guitar, continually gathering inspiration and song ideas, before finding herself in Edinburgh. There she underwent a period of experimentation, collaborating with various lights on the music scene. She moved to London to pursue her ambitions, but the death of her mother precipitated an intense period of loss and grief, culminating in a need to escape the grind of city life. Alice took a trip to America, ambling around the Deep South, en route to San Francisco via Nashville, with little more than her wits and that battered old guitar again, in a 1979 Dodge Winnebago. On the way she found courage, independence and freedom, all key in developing her own unique style and sound.
And what of that sound? Alice’s “stunning voice”, writes Nigel Williamson, combines “the English purity of early Marianne Faithfull with something of the otherworldliness of Bjork.” “I guess I awkwardly fit in with Ricky Lee Jones, with hints of Dusty Springfield, PJ Harvey and Laura Nyro,” she reveals herself. “But I much prefer being Alice”.
Alice's co-produced and self-financed a mini-album, The Eastcote Sessions, with help from double-bass maestro Ali Friend (Clayhill, Red Snapper), guitarist Ted Barnes (Beth Orton, Clayhill), and producer Will Worsley. It's a beautiful testament to her folk and soul influenced roots. After meeting Rob da Bank, Alice found a spiritual home in his Sunday Best label for releasing her first single Dolly Figured, followed by I Could Love You in Feb 2008. Alice is now signed to Parlophone and is currently completing her album.
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