Madam - Back to the Sea

  by John Clarkson

published: 23 / 8 / 2016

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Review

In 2007 Sukie Smith’s father died suddenly. The trauma and the shock of this pushed the front woman with Madam, as she has told Pennyblackmusic in a forthcoming interview, into a prolonged period of depression and pattern of self-annihilating behaviour. ‘Back to the Sea’, Madam’s third album and first long-player in five years, is largely about that time. There are some inevitable very dark moments on ‘Back to the Sea’, none more so than the heart-breaking ‘No Ghost Here’, the first song which Smith who was unable to write during this period began to compose as the numbing effects of her depression at last started to lift. It finds her trying to conjure up the spirit of her father, but to no avail (“Daddy daddy I call through the static/But no ghost comes/No ghost, no ghost comes”). ‘Murder Park’ is from a similar framework, finding Smith once again trying to connect with her father after his death and using the routine of a walk in a park to describe how, while for much of the rest of the world it seems life carries on unhurried, for Smith it has been irrevocably changed (“The bird sings her wild song/I learn my part/And the bird sings her wild song/It breaks my heart”). There are tales of short-lived, crash-and-burn romances as well. ‘Rules of Love’ was written with the aim of describing the cycle of a relationship - from chance meeting to middle to finish - and reflects on the enduring connection between two people who were once lovers, however it has ended (“You’re not my lover/You’re not my friend/We are something in-between/Still connected/When we were alone you reached for me/When we were alone…didn’t we?”). The candid ‘3 Sixes’ meanwhile tells of a three-party relationship, and the on-off occasional jubilation and the solitariness of being the other woman (“You’re my prize for not giving in/You better be around/To watch me win/Rules are set and tables turned/I never learned what to expect/You were with her while I was with you/I guess I couldn’t ask for anything less”). The music throughout is magnificently turbulent, a series of bittersweet semi-orchestral volleys, which, feverish and dream-like, capture presumably Smith’s state of insomnia at the time. Long-term Madam members Sarah Gill with her nocturnal cello and Jeff Townsin with his insistent tom-tom like drumming stand out, while John Robertson and Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin pull off the double trick of being both razor-tight and absolutely fluid in their guitar-playing. Yet, for all its sorrow and raw honesty, ‘Back to the Sea’ is never simply bleak. Smith has described the record as an “anti-death manifesto,” and ‘Back to the Sea’ is cathartic in tone, certainly about loss, but primarily about adapting to and building on from it. The slow surging, reflective opening title track, which pushes Gareth Moss’s brooding bass playing to the fore, is a rallying call in which Smith calls herself to “rise up.” On it she promises both herself and her father to “make our bones/Make them count,” by, rather than continuing to lose time in depression and self-sabotage, seizing at life. ‘I Am Your Home’ concludes with a soaring, triumphant guitar line from John Robertson, and, again redemptive but also tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating, finds Smith reconnecting with herself after her bout of self-destruction (“I am your home if you ever arrive /If you ever arrive alive”). The different strands of the record - its ultimate theme and truth that all relationships are temporary yet also permanent - are pulled together convincingly with the final track, the elegiac 'The Connection'. On it Smith discovers that her first great love, who she has not seen in many years, has died some time ago, and concludes that, however painful the parting may be, it is better to have connected once rather than not at all, that the dead and the gone have all also had and will continue to have a part to play in shaping what she is ("You must be proud of the ones in our life story/The past is now/And you are its glory" and "Here's the truth it's nothing new/I search for you where shadows move/Lives divide with space and time but love infinity divine"). As she whispers the final words of the record "All is love", the music soars upwards for a final time and a huge-sounding solo on viola from David Michael Curry of the Willard Grant Conspiracy brings the record to a valedictory close. One can only hope for her that Sukie Smith and Madam's next record will not come out of such suffering, but 'Back to the Sea' is an album of refreshing, naked honesty in which its truths have been hard earned and learnt. It is a profoundly moving and spiritual experience. 'Back to the Sea' will be released on download on the 5th August and on limited edition vinyl on the 23rd September. Madam will be headlining a Pennyblackmusic Bands Night with support from Idiot Son and Dream Maps on Saturday 1st October at the Sebright Arms, London. Tickets are available in advance for £6 from We Got Tickets www.wegottickets.com and on the door from £7.

Track Listing:-

1 Back to the Sea
2 Rules of Love
3 When I Met You
4 No Ghost
5 Not Here Yet
6 Three Sixes
7 I am Your Home
8 Murder Park
9 Night Watch
10 Left to Break
11 The Connection

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/madammusic
http://madamband.com/
https://twitter.com/madammadammadam
https://www.instagram.com/madammadamma
https://www.youtube.com/user/madammada