Esme Bridie - Today It Rains

by John Clarkson

published: 15 / 4 / 2018

Label: Klee Music
Format: LP

Outstanding debut album, which is being released on vinyl and download only, from young Liverpool singer-songwriter Esme Bridie

Review

Esme Bridie reveals an ability on her debut album ‘Today It Rains’ to sum up a situation or a scenario in a line or a sentence. “When are you going to learn from those mistakes?" she sings to a friend who has slid into a serial pattern of self-pity and personal sabotage on opening track ‘Self Destructive’ and “Here we go jumping headfirst into the waters below/And we don’t know what it is going to show but I hope that is beautiful” as she tentatively begins a new romance. Although she is just 21 and some of the songs were written two or three years ago, Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Bridie shows herself already to be a songwriter of real maturity and depth on ‘Today It Rains’. Its tone is sometimes melancholic, but, as the title of the album, however, implies, with its suggestion that while life may be difficult now things might be better soon, it is rarely without hope. ‘Old Love (How Did We Get This Way?)’ reflects on a romance which has become stale. “I don’t even recognise your face,” admits Bridie, but with its soaring tune one is left with the feeling that the relationship may not be quite over yet. ‘The Queen Bee’ reflects on someone caught in the traps of the political system (“They have got you right where they want you/And that’s exactly where you will stay”), but the upbeat ‘In Love with the City’ in contrast captures how the whole world seems to shine when you are young and in love (“I am in love with the city/I am in love with the night”). Bridie has used a full band – electric guitar, bass and drums – and plays the acoustic guitar on this album. ‘Today It Rains’ also features at various points a piano and keyboards, a violin and a flute, yet under Colin McKay’s delicate production it never seems over crowded, each instrument having a place and a purpose. Bridie’s vocals are also under-stated and controlled, forcing her audience to listen and drawing it forwards and in. ‘Today It Rains’ is an appealing mix of perfectly-shaped arrangements, strong melodies and instantly classic and timeless song-writing. It is an outstanding debut album.

Track Listing:-

1 Self Destructive
2 What You Had Yesterday
3 Tower Of Regret
4 Only Lonely People
5 Strangers
6 In Love With The City
7 Old Love (How Did We Get This Way)
8 The Queen Bee
9 Dirty Hands
10 Precious Life