PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
That difficult second album,eh? It can be a bit of a bother but, apparently, that’s not the case as far as West Midlands blues artist Rebecca Downes is concerned. With her debut Back to the Start from 2014 still basking in the glow of positivity, along comes her second offering – Believe – to raise the bar and then some.
Packed with 12 tracks each having enough power to tear apart your music making machine of choice, this is an album that simply oozes class and an album to be played at nothing less than Loudest +1.
From the opening muscle of Never Gonna Learn, ploughing through the funk spiced Sweetness and on to richly delivered, anthemic beast of a song that is the closing title track, Believe further accentuates what a devastatingly dominant force for good this artist is destined to become.
What truly stands out, however, is the wide range of vocal styles Downes incorporates with as an eclectic a range as is humanly possible to conjure up. One minute it’s all raspy heartbreak as on 1,000 Years, the next it has more of a sultry smoothness as on Night Train.
All of this is combined most on Long, Long Time, which is a joy of a song guaranteed to have you seeking out the corn balls and rye the moment you hear the opening bars. A Jazz infused, Country honouring Blues feast and one of many outstanding tracks.
It also helps that she seems to have gathered a whole army of musicians rather than just the four, such is its vast sound created by the superb production of Mark V Stuart. Rik Benton on Hammond adds an almost onion-esque layering throughout to enrich and embolden the superb guitar work of Steve Birkett, with the whole thing underpinned by the pulsing beats being thumped out in sumptuous droves by Dan Clarke’s bass and Lloyd Daker’s exemplary drumming skills.
Rich, refreshing an ultimately reverberating in the raw light of excellence, Believe is an album to savour chord-for-chord, bar-for-bar and word for word.
Tracklist
01. Never Gonna Learn
02. Night Train
03. It’s That Easy
04. Sailing On a Pool of Tears
05. Sweetness
06. 1000 Years
07. Could Not Say No
08. Long Long Time
9. Momma’s Got a Gun
10. Salt Winds
11. Come With Me Baby
12. Believe
- £13.28
