Sunlight On My Soul - Stephanie Kirkham

I often receive the most enjoyment from totally unexpected sources - those of you who recall my earliest CD reviews may remember Stephanie Kirkham's debut album "That Girl" being lauded a couple of years ago. Whilst I really liked it, I somehow failed to keep up with what she was doing recently and completely missed out on the fact that despite the collapse of her initial record deal with Hut (part of the Virgin empire), she'd gone ahead ...
...two years ago. Attagirl! I came across this little nugget of information just after Christmas last year so immediately ordered a copy of the CD, and what a purchase it turned out to be! Stephanie actually contacted me recently to ask what I thought of it - maybe I should send her a copy of this review!

So who is Stephanie Kirkham? Well, try to imagine Portishead's Beth Gibbons taking up folk music, then throw Harriet Wheeler from The ... more

I often receive the most enjoyment from totally unexpected sources - those of you who recall my earliest CD reviews may remember Stephanie Kirkham's debut album "That Girl" being lauded a couple of years ago. Whilst I really liked it, I somehow failed to keep up with what she was doing recently and completely missed out on the fact that despite the collapse of her initial record deal with Hut (part of the Virgin empire), she'd gone ahead anyway and released a follow-up disc, "Sunlight On My Soul", two years ago. Attagirl! I came across this little nugget of information just after Christmas last year so immediately ordered a copy of the CD, and what a purchase it turned out to be! Stephanie actually contacted me recently to ask what I thought of it - maybe I should send her a copy of this review!

So who is Stephanie Kirkham? Well, try to imagine Portishead's Beth Gibbons taking up folk music, then throw Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays into the mix and you're already halfway to describing her voice. She grew up in Lancashire listening to the likes of diverse artists such as Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash and The Beatles. Art college and a stint of model work in Japan followed, but all the while she was secretly dreaming of being a songwriter like her heroes. Setting down her myriad amounts of scribbled lyrics on bits of paper and melodies swimming around in her head, her initial a cappella demos led to the above-mentioned deal with Hut in 2002, which was for five albums. Six months later, EMI closed the label (see my review on Gemma Hayes' "The Hollow Of Morning" for another artist that was affected by EMI around the same time), whilst Stephanie was considering material for this album. She decided that she'd have to do things her own way if she wanted to get anywhere in the music business - relying on the whims of the big companies didn't give her the freedom she wanted. "Sunlight On My Soul" was therefore released on her own newly-created label, SLK Music, in February 2006.

As Stephanie's debut was a surprisingly assured piece of work, full of bouncy little pop songs that stuck in your head, I was a little bit apprehensive as to the quality of her follow-up. Some artists don't seem to be able to recapture the magic they started out with, or try to move off in a different direction that doesn't always work. I needn't have worried, though - she's managed to produce a set of songs that succeed on both counts. Yes, there's a complete direction change in that the music is influenced from diverse origins such as medieval and eastern arrangements, but the quality and freshness Stephanie brought to her debut CD remains in abundance. All the lyrics are self-penned, and the vocals and melodies were down to her, whilst she left the writing, performing and producing of the arrangements to fellow musician Johnny Dunne. For someone who was once described as "so reserved, she makes Nick Drake sound like Elton John", this is a very assured, engaging piece of work, and she's got the confidence to do it all her own way. She says that she wanted to produce an album that was full of songs which sounded like "how I hear them in my head, I wanted something magical". I think she's cracked it. Trouble is, I can see the majority of people never experiencing this album since it'll be totally underneath their radar coverage - and as it's on the artist's own label, it won't get anywhere near the level of publicity it deserves, and the songs probably won't get airplay beyond local radio - a real shame.

Stephanie wrote eleven songs that ended up on "Sunlight On My Soul":

01. Butterfly Song
02. Show Me What You're Made Of
03. Hear The Blackbird
04. Wash Away The Ashes
05. Moving And Breathing
06. Bad Dream
07. Today
08. Bonds Are Broken
09. All For Nothing
10. January Day
11. Sunlight On My Soul

"Oh I wonder if he knows how precious is today?" - "Butterfly Song" immediately signalled the change of direction this album was going to take - each song seems to follow a different path but this kooky little tune set the tone for what was to come. It's a quite delicate, fragile little song in keeping with the subject matter, the almost ethereal arrangement harking back to a less-presupposing time and evoking a more traditional feel. The use of a madrigal works extremely well, setting off Stephanie's waif-like, halting and quietly sung vocals to perfection - its a little story set to music, a tune with its tinkered rhythms and tempo, pulled from the depths of history and it works really well. As an album opener, well, it's not a particularly strong tune to the immediate ear and therefore it might not grab people - but that's not the point. Listen a bit closer and you'll soon appreciate the sparse magic on offer here.

"Wild ideas like fireworks cascade in your mind" - Stephanie changes tack again with "Show Me What You're Made Of", with its omnipresent, feline-graced jazz-standard arrangement and self-assured piano, double bass, brass and snare brush. This was apparently the first single off the album (download only), and it's a complete winner. If you think it's a straight-forward as that though, try listening to it again - there's a jauntiness, a kookiness and a whimsical, mocking tone running right through the song that almost brings a chuckle to her lips at any given moment. Jaunty it may be, but she demonstrates poise, gravitas and a versatility that may surprise some. Her voice almost struts for the listener, adopting a grace that might well be mistaken for self-indulgence, whilst it echoes Beth Gibbons in the latter's most mellow moments. How this never made anyone's regular playlist is a complete mystery to me.

"Someone switched the lights, confined me" - the tempo is dialled right back on "Hear The Blackbird", another demonstration of the artist's confidence in playing with the rhythm and pace of her songs. Introspective to its core, the sparse nature of the backing only adds to the charm of her child-like vocals. Whilst it's clearly a folk song, there's an openness that transcends labelling - just sit back and enjoy.

"Been dragging my feet under my personal cloud" - the madrigals make a welcome return on "Wash Away The Ashes", something of a slightly grown-up nursery rhyme with a distinct folksy theme. It's another song that's been given plenty of room to breathe - not shackled to any particular pigeonhole, it almost meanders through its three minutes of life, caressing rather than careering into the ears. The simple accompaniment is completely at ease with Stephanie's ultra-pure voice, even when she virtually speaks rather than sings the final verse.

"Tongues wagging, whips cracking" - once Stephanie's virtually a cappella intro is out of the way, "Bad Dream" appears fast paced but that's simply the deceptive nature of the song playing tricks on your ears. Who needs a quick tempo, when instead you've got an extremely atmospheric Middle Eastern-influenced arrangement, complete with sitar, which plays away merrily behind madrigal, guitar and strings, plus the artist's own multi-layered backing vocals? Whilst the repetitive nature of the chorus might drag during the second half, it's underpinned by a completely off-the-wall pipe-sounding wail that's equally unexpected yet strangely in keeping with everything else here.

"Wrote a list of what I want to throw away" - "Bonds Are Broken" starts off like some sort of pagan anthem delivered in a voice that could be Beth Gibbons when she really gets into her stride. Add some urgent yet delicious strings between the verses of this song about liberation and its aftermath and you get a rather Eastern-flavoured arrangement, an urgent mantra that simply bounces with elation and a beguiling set of breathy backing vocals. This is not folk music; its effortless pop dressed up in the delights summoned up by the artist's fevered imagination - revel in it at your leisure. This should have been a single too - it's certainly catchy enough with a hook and half-repeated lyric lines that again provide further evidence of her self-confidence as a songwriter.

"I'm running and I'm running and I'm out of breath" - just when you think you've got Stephanie Kirkham pegged, she ends the album with "Sunlight On My Soul", a jazzy, half-frantic, half-restrained gem of a song that seems to transcend all musical logic at times but includes all of the ingredients she's used to great effect in the past. With the freedom to do what she likes, the artist has seemingly thrown the "Songwriters' Rule Book" away and instead dreamt up something of a performance (with a capital "P") that even Rachael Sage would be proud to have on one of her albums. The song assumes a dramatic change in pace at times, the above-quoted lyric bringing on an ever-increasingly breathless delivery, whilst the remainder seems to steal from all the other influences noted elsewhere on the album - yes, and I do mean everything. In anyone else's hands, this bizarre musical melange might have ended up as a car-crash of a song, but Stephanie manages to meld it altogether to end the CD with a huge bang rather than a whisper. I read it described somewhere as "a strange Frankenstein experiment, bolting together scraps, while Kirkham stands at the centre, triumphantly yelling 'It's Alive, It's Alive!'" - a description which is quite apt, I thought. It's sprawling, noisy and chaotic, sure, but immensely enjoyable.

The CD inlay contains plenty of photos - not surprisingly for a former model she's a quite striking-looking lass, plus full lyrics for all of her songs.

If she's got anything going for her beyond a collection of kooky yet interesting and catchy songs, the largely-unknown Stephanie Kirkham has bags of imagination and a determination to put out the songs she wants, unrestricted by convention. She's not a diva, nor is she some wandering minstrel doomed to play bulk-standard folk songs forever. "Sunlight On My Soul" is warm but not fluffy, fresh but strangely familiar and most definitely intelligent. Praise has to be given to Johnny Dunne's inventive arrangements: the combination of these and her pure voice make this an incredibly rewarding album.

In the crowded, over-populated world of singer-songwriters, though, I suspect she'll have great difficultly getting her profile noticed beyond fans and those curious enough to search the likes of this artist out. It's a pity, especially when contemporaries seem to be trying to out-do each other in terms of rocking and emoting, that someone who's content, confident and imaginative enough to produce an album such as this one doesn't see too much return for their undoubted musical prowess.

I'm so glad I bought "Sunlight On My Soul" - already it's the best CD I've heard so far this year. Guess what? I'm going to play it all again right now! :) 

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