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Album Reviews
Melancholic poetry and disturbing melodies (February 09, 2010)
'Doodlebug Alley' may not be folk
music. It may be less. It may be more. It is however a mix of melancholic
poetic words, high drama and disturbingly rambling melodies. It’s unusual and
different. And I guess it’s supposed to be so it achieves what the artist
intended.
 With her second musical-poetic
offering ‘Doodlebug Alley’, Jude Cowan has moulded another selection of phrase-pictures
to illustrate her world-view. There’s vicious humour mixed with acid insight,
sad tales poised with poignant observation and satirical social comment. Jude’s
idiosyncratic expression blends with sparsely architectured meanderings on strings,
organ and piano.
The theatrical 'Doodlebug Alley' sums
up Jude's unique delivery. It's an essay of destruction from the air coupled
with pleasure on the ground. ‘Remember Sinners’ (with Tom Fawcett’s rich voice)
‘Jolly Roger’ and ‘She Sits at the Window’ are classics of her narrated
story-song style. ‘Nations Nations’ with its dark message is positively disturbing,
as are the acerbic, anguished observations of ‘Naughty
Daddy’. The album winds up with ‘The Devil Can Take Me’ and ‘Alien Folk
Valediction’ – reflective observations that tolerate your exploration of Jude’s
elegiac lyrics and rhythmical vocals.
The beauty of true eccentricity
is it fails to recognise boundaries. It touches the foolish, the wise, the
educated and the ignorant. It takes those that are happy to make the heady
journey on its own magical captivating voyage. This outing into the far side of
the unconventional will need to find you in the right mood but when it does
(and it will) you’re in for a feast of enjoyment.
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