In loving memory of our co-founder, Darren Beech (4/08/1967 to 25/03/2021)

SUE HARDING – The World (own label)

The WorldThe World is Sue Harding’s third solo album and the word on the street is that it’s caused some surprise. Reviewing the single, ‘Barflies’, I was quite taken with its imagination but I was more impressed with the “B-side”, ‘Capitano’. In comparison with her debut album, Flight, it did come as something of a surprise. Sue is supported by Will Angeloro, Jane Langley, Sarah Van, Gemma White, Steve Ricketts and Al Cosnett who provide some inventive arrangements and therein lies my problem. To my ear the mix isn’t right. There are some good songs here but too often Sue is submerged in the backing.

Let’s start at the end with the album’s best track, ‘Lady Electra’, which was recorded live and stripped of the trimmings. The song holds up a dark mirror to ‘Lola’ and while Ray Davies wrote his song for laughs Sue is deadly serious. It’s the directness and uncluttered nature of the performance that makes it the standout track, though.

To return to the beginning and ‘Barflies’. Sue had a good reason for dictating the nature of the arrangement and it goes according to plan, portraying the end of the night in a bar somewhere. ‘The Bloody Rose’ and ‘Bordertown Blues’ come from Sue’s imagined wild west and in the latter she adopts a breathy voice that really doesn’t suit her or the song. ‘Capitano’ teeters on the edge of the same problem but the song, written about her friend, Gabriel Moreno, comes so obviously from the heart which is probably why it appealed to me in the first place.

‘Edge Of The Day’ is, for me, when it really starts to go wrong. Sue’s voice is just muffled and ‘The Briar’, potentially the best song on the album, fares no better. That’s a huge pity. I like ‘Old Glass’ – a clever idea – but Sue’s voice needs to be a bit more front and centre. ‘Icebergs’ and ‘Sirens’ go the same way, the latter being another particularly good song.

I wanted to like The World much more than I do but I can’t blind myself to its problems.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: www.suehardingsongs

‘Sirens’ – live and solo:

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