She Drew The Gun - Memories Of The Future
9/10
It is initially surprising that Merseyside's Louisa Roach should choose a stage name so similar to Laura Kidd's She Makes War, especially when you consider their overlap in some of the shared themes of protestation and dysfunctional relationship. But upon listening to Memories of the Future any suspicions of conceptual plagiarism are rapidly dispelled. These two young singer-songwriters may appeal to similar audiences, but their sound and lyrical styles remain very different.
Introduced to James Skelly in 2015, The Coral's vocalist produced this debut, and it is released on Skeleton Key, also home to psychedelic Wirral rockers The Sundowners.
Beautifully laid-back, and taking us on a journey that reminds us of New Zealand's Bic Runga and Hong Kong's Emmy The Great, Memories of the Future opens with the languid Where I End And You Begin, but it is not until Chains that the anger starts to build. By the time we reach Poem the rhyming couplets are being spat out with real venom.
Pit Pony hints at PJ Harvey, and Or So I Thought muses like Marling, but ultimately the green shoots of optimism are Roach's alone.
This is undeniably the soundtrack to my spring.
9/10
