Singer/lyricist Penny McConnell is a chanteuse along the lines of Garbage’s Shirley Manson, capable of both bouncy pep and seething menace. The former is apparent on glossy pop songs like “Brighton Rocks,” while the latter can be seen in tracks like “Fill,” an ode to a drugged lover (“You’re a dead man waiting to happen”).
McConnell will probably generate the most attention from fans and media—when does a female-fronted band revolve around a balding male bassist, after all?—but she is by no means a one-woman show. There are studio masterminds hard at work; Jon Cotton and David Picking create the varied backgrounds that crescendo and fall around McConnell’s vocals. Picking handles much of the guitar and percussion work while Cotton mixes, engineers and produces. The highlights of Cotton’s work are his gripping string arrangements, rising to glorious heights on tracks like “Dead Girls Don’t Say No” and “Mr. T,” two of the album’s finest cuts. One would think this creates a difficult transition to a live show—barring bringing a mini-orchestra along with the band—because the string sections are what makes the album stand out.
To pull one final parallel to Garbage, Gramophone was recorded between November 1995 and July 1998. This is the chief symptom of that most famous of studio maladies: perfectionism. If there’s any fault in the recording it’s that it’s too neat, like that room in your mom’s house in which no one is allowed to bring food.
The Gramophone equation may not be new—savvy production matched with a strong female lead vocal—but it’s still a likeable one when done right. And this is done right. Gramophone fuses their pop sensibility with their distinguishing ear for cinematic flair, resulting in an album that doesn’t mimic but will sit comfortably among the Garbages and Portisheads on your CD shelf.
To listen to selected tracks or to order Gramophone, visit http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gramophone
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