Crystal Jacqueline - Await the Queen

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 12 / 8 / 2017

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Review

By the time this appraisal of the first double album to appear on the wonderful Mega Dodo label makes it online the limited edition of 250 copies of the vinyl version will no doubt be long sold-out. At the time of writing both Mega Dodo Mail Order and the always reliable Heyday Mail Order still have copies left; if female-fronted 60's influenced psych is your thing then waste no more time. It’s worth trying to get the vinyl, not least for the stunning artwork which relates to the music perfectly. The double album is also available on CD and download so there’s no excuse if that vinyl is long gone by now. Crystal Jacqueline was, along with Icarus Peel, a founder member of the Honey Pot. The talented singer has also had a number of releases issued under her own name both on Mega Dodo and the Fruits de Mer labels but, even though the last Honey Pot album found the band extending their psych/prog tendencies, this collection of seventeen new songs is not only Jacqueline’s most challenging set to date it’s also the most rewarding. Anyone who has heard Jacqueline’s interpretations of classic songs from the 1960's and 70's will know she adds her own unique twist to every song she chooses to lend her haunting vocals to. They will also know that she can do the psych/pop thing better than most as well but Jacqueline covers so much ground here it feels like she has taken a major step forward musically without losing sight of her roots for a second. The opening song, ‘Your Bartered Bride’, gives notice that maybe Jacqueline and Icarus were going to make their first ‘rock’ album, for all of fifteen seconds anyway. Brian Rushbrooke’s pounding drums and Peel’s nagging lead guitar both indicate that a tougher sound, which has been touched upon before, might colour this album but as soon as Jacqueline’s vocals come in and the melody takes on a lighter, more typical Honey Pot flavour, it’s obvious that both Jacqueline and Peel are going to fuse all of their loves and influences to once again create music that while always glancing back to the past sounds so contemporary. The strains of psych that emerged from Britain and the USA back in the 1960's were two totally different beasts especially in psych’s formative months. Our American cousins left us Brits to explore the childlike wonder of toytown psych while they generally infused their take of psych with more of that garage rock which was popular at the time. Even as early as that opening song the listener gets the feeling that Jacqueline and Peel have, very successfully, fused a little of both varieties. There are times when it sounds that we are listening to a new, undiscovered album from Jefferson Airplane after they had been locked in a room for 24 hours listening to obscure English bands from the psych-era of the 1960's. Even then it’s unlikely that they could have come up with a song so hauntingly beautiful as ‘Ivy’, which is Jacqueline at her mystical best; her pastoral vocals floating over a chilling soundscape. By contrast the following song, ‘Akhbar’ leaves the English countryside for somewhere much more exotic. Jacqueline is an exceptional vocalist but when her vocals are multi-tracked to create harmonies as gorgeous as those on this song the results are breathtaking. It’s a sound that you’d gladly hear more of but this album is so varied musically we have to be content with just this one track exploring this side of Jacqueline and Peel’s work. While there is a video doing the rounds of ‘Crumble’ which finds Jacqueline exploring her pop/rock side with a little gothic folk blended in for good measure and which both musically and visually tells newcomers all they need to know to be smitten by this performer it’s the title song here that really reveals where Jacqueline and Icarus Peel are coming from. At almost twelve minutes long, ‘Await the Queen’ is given the space to explore all elements of their music. Jacqueline’s vocals are simply outstanding; a touch of spoken word, fragile, almost whispering at times, heavenly multi-tracked harmonies and ghostly voices fluttering from ear to ear, it’s a remarkable vocal performance. And while Jacqueline’s vocals on this track are compelling the soundscape that Peel is creating behind her is adding so much texture to the song you feel compelled, even at nearly twelve minutes, to immediately play the song again. It really defies description; is it prog, psych, rock, folk? It’s all of those and then some; it’s the sound that those whose love of music started in the 1960's have been searching for ever since. When Peel’s scorching guitar solo breaks through nine minutes into the song it’s a shivers down the spine moment. The fact that Jacqueline can then take your attention away from such superb playing with her vocals is proof once more that she is indeed an exceptional vocalist. Most artists would have ended the album there; what more can be said after such a performance but there’s one more song to go. ‘The Lost Song Of Sleep’ closes the album, which is a lullaby complete with a score written by Richard Edwards and that wouldn’t have sounded out of place playing in the background on ‘The Wicker Man’. Even at seventeen tracks it’s impossible to select a highlight although obviously the epic title track leaves its mark maybe a little deeper than some of the other songs. Tir na nOg appear on ‘Faerie Tears’ but the majority of the sounds (except the aforementioned contribution from Brian Rushbrooke, Lizzy Wayne’s flute playing on ‘Sebastian’, the violin from Stephen Potter on ‘Spanish Horses’ and the strings on the closing track) come from Icarus Peel who also produced the set. Yet for all his abilities on various instruments, his undoubted skill as a producer and also as a songwriter this isn’t an Icarus Peel album; even for all the inventiveness shown throughout the seventeen tracks it’s that voice, the voice that has been described as being one of the best on the neo-psych scene that shines above all else. Crystal Jacqueline isn’t just one of the best on the scene; she is truly the Queen.

Track Listing:-

1 Your Bartered Bride
2 Crumble
3 Yesterlove
4 Love
5 Ivy
6 Akhbar
7 Someone
8 Faerie Tears
9 One White Day
10 Rubies My Heart
11 Sebastian
12 Breathe
13 My Sad Days
14 Spanish Horses
15 Your Dry Ghost
16 Await The Queen
17 The Lost Song Of Sleep

Band Links:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/crystaljacq
https://twitter.com/crystaljacq