Rosemary Rebecca Swan
Mid Life (and the definitive break up) LP
Having written, co-written, performed, and won awards all over the place in the past twenty-odd years, Rosemary Rebecca Swan is the woman you probably didn’t know you knew.
If Rosemary wanted to name drop, she could sit back and state with ease, ‘You heard of Sam Fox? I wrote the lead track on her album!’ and just as comfortably mention the fact she co-wrotewith D.Ream’s principle writers… The list goes on and impresses with every bullet point, heck – she even sang for Take That the day Robbie left (not as a replacement mind, rather as a backing vocalist on Top of the Pops).
The Mid Life… LP was recorded at home and mastered at Abbey Road, a studio that has almost as many accolades as Rosemary herself, and is a sparkling pop journey that oozes credible talent on every single rotation.
The overall theme is one of acoustic simplicity with a masterfully rich vocal and concentrates it’s entire energy on the songs and lyrics. The pursuit of purity within the emotional delivery of the songs led to many of them being recorded in one take.
Perhaps the downside of this simplicity is that, at times, the songs don’t quite have the grab-factor that will remind you to shove the record on when you’re browsing your CD collection.
My personal favourite song is ‘Holidays’ purely because I absolutely love the percussion in the track, beautifully syncopated and gaining weight all the way through the song. Special mention should also go to the heavily emotional ‘Follow’ and the warm sounding ‘Dignity’, which has the most inspired melody on the record.
You wouldn’t notice the home-made nature of this record apart from in the rare crackle or the hint of the outdoors hidden somewhere in the background noise and, although this is an artistic masterpiece, it isn’t at all daunting.
Pleasant, emotionally rich and performed to perfection.
Written by Fenton on
