Jane Weaver seems to have taken the huff. Seems that her most recent long-player ‘The Silver Globe’ hasn’t been nominated for the Mercury Prize.
This may be a tongue-in-cheek response to her failure to be nominated alongside a pretty tired-looking set of albums, but thinking about it, Weaver ticks all the right boxes for such an ‘accolade’. The Scouse singer has been on the go for quite some time now (check), critically-acclaimed but very much under the radar (yup), having updated her sound for a brand new audience (double points, surely?). In fact, that description sounds a little like 2014 nominee John Grant, so perhaps her point – if it was a point – is a valid one?
Ostensibly a folk artist by trade, it’s been a surprisingly easy transition to her current sound, going via psychedelia to folktronica, and slipping into a krautrock groove. A very capable backing band are led by the singer on Farfisa organ, and while the back catalogue is dipped into, the oldies are given an electropop sheen along with Weaver’s glitter-spattered face. However, it’s her most recent release that forms the backbone of the set – the filmic ‘Arrows’ slow and mesmerising, ‘Don’t Take My Soul’s oddball rhythms getting the packed audience grooving in spite of their typical Edinburgh reticence, and the thudding beats of ‘Argent’, harking back to the 70s but drawing more from Neu! than Fairport. It’s a set that’s somehow very ‘now’ and yet familiar, dredging up memories of, well, when music was more fun, less contrived… better.
More importantly, I’m not sure Jane Weaver has much to worry about if the audience response tonight is anything to go by. She can take the Mercurys oversight as some kind of badge of honour, unless she wants to rub shoulders with Florence and her Machine, or Jamie xx. To be honest, I’m not sure what constitutes a ‘Mercury’ album these days, but if Jane Weaver’s not one of the top 12 acts in the UK these days I’d like to hear what is. Or maybe not…
Also chief newshound at Jockrock
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