Katy Carr - Coquette

  by Jon Rogers

published: 11 / 11 / 2009




Katy Carr - Coquette


Label: Deluce Recordings
Format: CD
Evocative and surprisingly effective themed latest album from London-based singer-songwriter Katy Carr , which draws both musically and lyrically from World War II for its inspiration



Review

It seems like a perfect time for Katy Carr to release a themed album looking back at the World War II musical sweethearts like Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields. Not only is it around the time of Remembrance Day but Lynn has also recently had chart success when she could very easily be resting up in a relaxed retirement. The connection with Lynn is made explicit in the penultimate ‘The White Cliffs’ when Carr borrows wholesale from the wartime stable ‘We’ll Meet Again’. In fact the theme of wartime life and loves is made explicit throughout with the 1940s style artwork featuring a Spitfire. Throughout ‘Coquette’ too it draws, musically, from that era with all the songs having a sort of jazzy, cabaret feel to them. As if you’re in someplace like the Café de Paris sipping a cocktail whilst the cigarette girl stands in the corner. And Carr’s soft, lush vocals just set the right tone and are accompanied with subtle strings and a gentle rhythmic pace. The whole of ‘Coquette’ is seeped in wartime femininity conjuring up a bygone era so evocatively. At times it does sound all a little contrived but for the vast majority of the time Carr carries it off superbly pulling the listener into her world. And sometimes it is a very private world that Carr reveals. In ‘Erotic Days’ she invokes the memory of her lover: “He screams, he makes me wet.” Elsewhere there is the tenderly fragile ‘Butterfly’ and the somnambulistic ‘Sleepyhead’. ‘Coquette’ is a wonderful evocation of a time long since past and only really glimpsed in old black and white films nowadays but given a modern 21st century makeover. It might be nostalgic but is not a piece of nostalgia. So take your place in that cabaret, order yourself a swanky cocktail and let Carr’s ‘Coquette’ wash over you.



Track Listing:-

1 Star Song
2 Sparkle
3 Berliner Ring
4 Erotic Days
5 Violetta
6 Butterfly
7 Orchidophile
8 Kommander's Car
9 Belladonna
10 Army
11 The White Cliffs
12 Sleepyhead


Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/KatyCarrMusic
http://www.katycarr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/katycarrm
https://www.instagram.com/katycarrmusi
https://twitter.com/katycarrmusic


Label Links:-

http://www.propermusic.com/label/Deluc



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Interviews


Interview (2011)
Katy Carr - Interview
In 1942 Kazik Piechowksi escaped from Auschwitz by stealing the commandant's car. London-based singer-songwriter Katy Carr talks to John Clarkson about the song she has written about it, 'Kommander's Car', and going to Poland to meet and make a documentary about the 90 year old war veteran


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Reviews


Paszport (2012)
Atmospheric third album from London-based singer-songwriter Katy Carr, which tells the story of Kazik Piechowski, her adopted grandfather, a member of the Polish resistance movement, who escaped from Auschwitz
Kazik and the Kommander's Car (2012)


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