Lisa Cuthbert - Paramour

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 16 / 11 / 2013

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So, welcome to one of the darkest albums I've encountered this year. Lisa Cuthbert has just released 'Paramour', which is her second album to date. The Dublin-based singer/piano player has also, in putting out this 'concept' album, unleashed her beguiling vocals on the world, and it will be much the better for it. Not only does she play the piano with enthralling precision, but her voice is something else too. The album was recorded with a guest appearances by Dave Creffield (Sisters of Mercy), and produced in Dublin's Loop Studios by Gareth Desmond. Lisa Cuthbert is a singer, instrumentalist and composer and her main instrument is the piano, but her haunting, ethereal voice and exceptional harmonies are what hopefully will separate her from the rest in this league. She cites influences such as Tori Amos, Bjork, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Madonna and Dead Can Dance. But she sings like no-one I've heard. The album itself tells of the some of the survivors stories from what were called Magdalene Asylums, and which was one of the greatest scandals in Ireland's history. To qualify as an inmate in one of these Catholic establishments you had to be 'branded' as a 'fallen' woman, and either be pregnant, a rape victim, illegitimate, orphaned, mentally handicapped or, believe it or not, just too pretty. Cuthbert has conjured up characters here to help her tell the story including the victim, the lovers, the bystander, the mother and the paramour all of whom have been affected by this organised religion. It tells of a period of 150 years when an estimated 30,000 women were imprisoned in the Magdalene Asylums, the last one shutting as recent as 1996. "That part is really shocking for me because by 1996 I had already been baptised in the Catholic church and was attending a Catholic convent school in Dublin," says Cuthbert. "It's horrific to think that I've been raised and educated with the same values and morals imposed by an organisation that destroyed so many lives." This music is dark, yes, but it also explores memories, moods and reasons in a way that holds you intrigued and spellbound in places. She is able to soar, whisper and then turn to anger at the flip of a hat and with consummate ease. The whole album stand out, but if I had to pick out any one finer point it would be the massive sounding 'This Kind of Sin' or the last 'Party's Over'. 'Libra' also captivates and mesmerises, and all it involves is the piano and her voice. Such is her magical infectiousness. As she herself states it is dark/melancholic electro-acoustic art-rock, or something like that... The results are absolutely remarkable.

Track Listing:-

1 Destitute
2 Coils of Blue
3 Gartan Mother's Lullaby
4 Run and Jump
5 Libra
6 This Kind of Sin
7 The Balancing Act
8 The Sooner You Know
9 Madame's Secret Pain
10 Party's Over

Band Links:-

http://www.lisacuthbert.com/
https://www.reverbnation.com/lisacuthbert
http://www.last.fm/music/Lisa+Cuthbert
https://www.facebook.com/lisacuthbertmusician
http://lisacuthbert.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/lisacuthbertmusic

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