Caroline Alexander
Unplugged

When you think of Caroline Alexander, the rock, grunge, alternative metal crossover, and her unique vocal talent. That makes this rare unplugged album such a great attic find.

The record was recorded live at The Rock Garden, Covent Garden, in April 2001. The CD was made available to Caroline’s mailing list as an exclusive, which is what makes it so rare. The stripped down performance features Caroline Alexander on vocal duties, Al Gregg on guitar, Andy Stevens on percussion (sax), and Bob Elliot on bass.

After a saxophone intro, we hit the first track and get to find out what’s going on. Well, it’s an acoustic guitar, some bongos, and Cazza’s voice. This isn’t a strummy campfire rendition, though. The guitars are rhythmic and provide the hooks of the original songs, the bongos give creative beats, the voice is center stage.

The Hits

The Caroline Alexander classics translate well to an unplugged setting. ‘Yellow Baby’, ‘Fake The Blame’, and ‘If You’ still reveal the multitude of influences, which you might describe as being from punk to skunk! From the upper register perfection in ‘Yellow Baby’ to the angst-edged staccato of ‘Fake The Blame’, these are the songs that capture the most recognisable elements I remember from the live shows.

‘If You’ is one of my favourite tracks, it has an ominous twist to the guitar line that makes it feel weighty. The chorus has a big lift and a huge hook with the operatic extension to the word ‘you’. Even with just a guitar and percussion, the song manages to climb and fall. The closing melodic sopranic wails are hauntingly beautiful.

The Surprises

Andy Stevens tosses the percussion to give great flickers of saxophone in ‘Constant Thought’. The chorus has a great melody, which in an unplugged setting sounds like it could be the song you remember from a particularly moving West End musical.

‘Embarassment’ and ‘Innocent’ feature intricate guitar and solid melodic storytelling styles. There’s an emotional quality to these tracks and Caroline’s voice does a good job of flooding each line with feels.

High Rarity

I don’t know the size of the mailing list at the time of the pressing, but this record is super-rare. I trawled all the usual sources of second-hand records and came up blank. If you have a copy, put it somewhere safe!

Unplugged Track Listing

1. Sax intro
2. Yellow Baby
3. Fake The Blame
4. Pickin’ On Me
5. Follow You Down
6. Crazybird
7. Constant Thought
8. If You
9. Embarassment
10. Innocent
11. Lonely Child
12. You Care For Us

If You Live Video

Though this is from a full-band set in 2006, you can get a feel for Caroline Alexander live from her show at Kentish Town Forum.

Watch Caroline Alexander – ‘If You’.

Written by Fenton on 26th February 2025

Steve Fenton writes in our music, words, and culture categories. He was Editor in Chief for The Mag and covered live music for DV8 Magazine and Spill Magazine. He was often found in venues throughout the UK alongside ace-photographer, Mark Holloway. Steve is also a technical writer and programmer and writes gothic fiction. Steve studied Psychology at OSC, and Anarchy in the UK: A History of Punk from 1976-1978 at the University of Reading.

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