Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth - Utopian Ashes

by Nick Dent-Robinson

published: 5 / 7 / 2021

Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth - Utopian Ashes

Label: Sony Music
Format: CD

intro

Excellent country-influenced new album from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Savages' singer Jehnny Beth which tells of a crumbling marriage

Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Savages' singer Jehnny Beth are best known for fronting loud rock bands but their first album as a duo follows a different path. Inspired by country music songs about adultery and divorce, 'Utopian Ashes' delves into the nuts and bolts of a crumbling marriage against a backdrop of soulful arrangements and elegant strings. The pair have been at pains to stress that the album is not in any way autobiographical! Gillespie, 59, is happily married to stylist Katy England while London-based Frenchwoman Beth, 36, is in a long-term relationship with boyfriend Johnny Hostile, the bassist on the new record. Nevertheless, there is a lovelorn authenticity about 'Utopian Ashes' with Bobby playing an older, disillusioned romantic while Jehnny enacts the younger, more hopeful woman. Opening track 'Chase It Down' sets the love-on-the-rocks theme with Gillespie's deep, rich voice and Beth's high harmonies bringing verve to a southern soul ballad. Other tracks find the pair trading he-said-she-said lines with Beth playing a disenchanted wife with great aplomb on “Living A Lie”. Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth really interact well together on “Utopian Ashes”. The album has brought out the best in them.

Track Listing:-

1 Chase It Down
2 English Town
3 Remember We Were Lovers
4 Your Heart Will Always Be Broken
5 Stones of Silence
6 You Don't Know What Love Is
7 You Can Trust Me Now
8 Living a Lie
9 Sunk in Reverie

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