It’s all about War these days. Good Old War, The War on Drugs, She Makes War. Terribly aggressive this life, ain’t it? Except it’s not really. Not when you listen to Laura Kidd’s She Make War, previously a Friday Five tip. No – she’s had her heart trampled on it but manages to sound lovely about it all. As someone who shouts at inanimate objects on a regular basis I can’t begin to empathise with her relative calmness.
There are two things to know about Ms Kidd – she’s incredibly beautiful and makes incredibly beautiful music. Ah yes and she does things all by herself. DIY. Oh go on then, she’s played bass for Tricky, A-ha and former Fame Academy winner Alex Parks. But don’t let that put you off though.
‘Little Battles’ is unmistakably a record documenting the end of a relationship that one wished hadn’t actually ended. Sadly it’s the war of art that means such great stuff is produced in these periods. There’s an edge of unpredictability in SMR’s sound – you never really know where the song’s going to lead. I’m not certain Kidd does either, mostly building around a guitar and taking us wherever the emotion blows us. Not in a whimsical way though.
The closest we get to a title track is ‘Exit Strategy’, which is the stand-out track on the album built around a rock beat, with haunting vocals and a ramblingly beautiful melody stitched over the top.
Mostly on this record we get down-beat confessional tales of woes though. ‘Butterflies’ is built around a ukulele with Kidd singing ‘butterflies, leave me with your lovely lies” and being built around a cheery ukulele should be a bright and breezy sunshine pop number but is as black as midnight on a moonless night given its lyrical content. It’s not all Kidd though, she’s joined by recent touring partner Chris TT on piano for goth-pop number ‘In This Boat’.
A couple of the songs on this record fail to deliver on the drama they are building towards but in all it’s a splendid album, striking a balance between polished pop songstress and a murky goth-rock sound. On ‘Delete’ Kidd goes all a capella on us adding a bit of beatbox in there then dives straight into ‘May Our Daughters Return Home’, a song about female abduction and murder in Mexcio.
All told, this album is splendid. A masterpiece given the background. With no label support, it was made entirely using Pledgemusic. It’s a record where the artistic statement are equally as admirable and given that it’s a break up record it doesn’t stray into petty cliches – it’s an emotionally mature record made by a very accomplished musician. It’s a fine alt-rock record and one that gives us hope. Hope that She Makes War will continue to make music for a long time to come.
Little Battles is out now via Bandcamp for the wonderful price of £3.
Links:
http://shemakeswar.com/
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