Frances Mckee - Sunny Moon

  by Andrew Carver

published: 6 / 7 / 2006

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Frances McKee rose to fame alongside Eugene Kelly in the Vaselines. A shambling pop-rock outfit with a fondness for noise and sexual innuendo, the Vaselines created a cunning blend of Kelly’s instinct for upbeat pop and McKee’s sombre monotone. Following the Vaselines’ split, McKee went on to record under the name of Suckle, a gloomier outfit. Her debut solo album, ‘Sunny Moon’, shares a lot of Suckle’s doleful aura. McKee’s voice still sounds like Nina Nastasia’s primary inspiration, and, like Nastasia, McKee uses a stripped down musical background to emphasize her singing. On ‘The Country Song’ her vocals trot along with clicking drums as guitars echo in the distance beguiling the listener with their idle confessions, While inebriated violin flutters around as McKee coos about ‘The Kindness of Strangers’ on the so-named song (those jonesing for the Vaselines will at least appreciate the song’s crunchy down-stroke guitar chords). On ‘Silence Will Do’, McKee sounds like Big Tam era Incredible String Band on downers. The austere musical background and McKee’s generally disregard for vocal inflection will remind some of Leonard Cohen’s work (albeit without Cohen’s gravel-voiced gravitas). Appropriately enough McKee covers ‘You Know Who I Am’ from Cohen’s notoriously gaunt ‘Songs From a Room’. It may take a bit of effort to enjoy listening to ‘Sunny Moon’, but Suckle fans and Vaselines cultists may want to pick it up.

Track Listing:-

1 The Kindness Of Strangers
2 The Country Song
3 Silence Will Do
4 Childish Memories
5 You Know Who I Am
6 Without Reason
7 Vicious Tongue
8 Secret Dreams
9 Drink In The Sun
10 Wasted
11 Limbo

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