Albums of The Year # 22 Isobel Campbell - There Is No Other

 

There is No Other, the new album from Isobel Campbell, (just out), has apparently been waiting for a couple of years for release for one reason or another for release, before finally seeing the light of day. This must be very frustrating for any artist, but particularly given that the record concerned here is a quite immaculate piece of work, slotting seamlessly into a particular canon as if it has always existed.

Campbell of course, first came to public notice as a member of Belle & Sebastian over twenty years back. Her choice to leave that particular roost was a brave one, given that by the time she upped sticks they were a definite going concern. Ultimately the records she's put out since, both as a solo artist and with Mark Lanegan,  more than justify that, probably difficult, decision. Because she's allowed herself a choice of a whole new set of colours that would probably not have been readily available under the B&S umbrella.

With Lanegan, the immediate and unavoidable touchstone inspiration point was Sinatra and Hazlewood, with she as Nancy, he as Lee. That's still here on occasions but she's also allowed herself to indulge in a whole range of late Sixties and early Seventies artists and records that help make this a rich feast indeed.

This Age of Aquarius period of history is a great grounding point for the lyrical concerns at play on here, because this is primarily a record concerned with a planet in immediate and pressing ecological peril. The original era that first voiced this issue with any sense of urgency produced no end of fabulous records of course and Campbell cherry picks its legacy with meticulous skill to help her make her point.

As a result the record manages to both wear its heart on its sleeve and keep its cool with consummate ease. There is No Other flirts with ersatz Soul, Eastern Mysticism and all kinds of other ingredients that music lovers would immediately recognise from that original Golden Age. Nancy is still there in the mix but so are Dusty, Melanie, Mama Cass, Jackie De Shannon and any number of other cool sirens from that period.

This is a quite wonderful feat of artistic gymnastics, managing both to be of that age and this at one and the same time. Campbell manages both to show off her taste and touch. Hers is a common artistic approach nowadays, people like Lana Del Rey and Weyes Blood to give two immediate examples, accessing the past for their own devices, pulling off a modern retro cool that manages to appeal both to the young and those older who might have experienced the real thing first time round. There is No Other probably won't get the same attention as those two have recently but certainly deserves it. Given the parameters it sets itself, it's a near flawless record.