SELF ESTEEM - KELLI BLANCHET - SOFT LAD
Anyone that reads my ramblings in these pages will know that my musical tastes tend towards shouty-angry-people-with-shouty-angry-guitars. So what am I doing at NAC for an evening of what is unashamedly pop? More of that later.
Arriving late, I only caught two and bit songs by Sophie Galpin AKA SOFT LAD. That late arrival was my loss as what I heard was might impressive. Singing and playing guitar over backing tracks, this was big but melancholy pop with the penultimate song – which may or may not have been called Love The Way You Use My Name – building to a crescendo bordering on post-rock.
KELLI BLANCHETT is another singing guitarist but without the backing track and having a folkier sound. Kelli has good songs, a decent voice and an engaging stage presence. I can’t help thinking those songs deserve a fuller sound but the response from the rest of the audience suggests that I am alone in that thought.
And so to Rebecca Lucy Taylor AKA SELF ESTEEM and why I am here. Someone suggested that I listen to How Can I Help You, which manages to be both tribal and industrial, and I was hooked. Further investigation revealed a questing, occasionally challenging take on modern pop that has enough of an edge to pique my curiosity.
Taylor has an engaging, warm and eye catching stage presence. Although undoubtedly the centre of attention, she has assembled a cracking band to support her vision. On backing vocals are Marged Sion, an electronic artist also known as MRGD, and actress Levi Heaton, perhaps best known for her roles in The Limehouse Golem and McMafia. Returning to the stage after opening the show as Soft Lad, Sophie Galpin provides bass, keys and percussion. To Galpin’s left is hard-hitting drummer Mike Park.
The set takes in ten of the thirteen songs from second album Prioritise Pleasure along with four from Compliments Please. Stand-outs include pounding opener I’m Fine, a soaring take on Prioritise Pleasure and John Elton, the latter featuring Taylor on guitar harmonising with Sion, Heaton and Galpin. The absolute highlight for me is my pre-gig favourite, the deliciously sweary How Can I Help You which, if anything, amps up the tribal, industrial thump.
Taylor, Sion and Heaton barely stop moving all set, engaging in obviously choreographed and rehearsed but still natural and relaxed routines, breaking into spontaneous smiles and even laughter. In other hands, this could be too slick, polished and manufactured but Taylor brings a sense of mischief to it all and her tongue is, at times, firmly in cheek, albeit that the lyrical subject matter can be deeply serious.
Bringing a young fan on stage during the encore of The Best is an act of joy and Sybil’s obvious delight even brings a lump to my throat and I haven’t got a paternal bone in my body. The only question I have as I leave is why Self Esteem is not dominating the charts.
