House of Payne
Every once in a while there's an album that comes along and it completely sweeps you off your feet, transports you to a different time and a different place. 2007 is shaping up nicely to be one of the defining musical years of the decade so far and Candie Payne's flawless debut is surely an early contender for album of the year.
Following a similar path to Lucky Soul and to a lesser extent The Pipettes, Payne fuses a love for sixties pop and soul with lashings of cinematic style. "I Wish I Could Have Loved You More" (the title track) isn't shy in coming forwards, a pulsating break-beat driven number it sashays into view making its intentions very clear. This upbeat slightly noirish opening is followed by "Why Should I Settle For You" which approximates the sound of Portishead in their pomp as re-mixed by Ennio Morricone. Slightly jazzy in tone its brushed drums and ghostly trumpets frame Payne's crystalline vocals perfectly. The retro psych-pop of "Take Me" is similarly enthralling, sitar and brass melding into something that sounds akin to The Chemical Brothers "Let Forever Be". "In The Morning" meanwhile sounds like something that's been beamed in from 1967 providing a soundtrack to an imaginary spy thriller starring a young Robert Vaughan. Clearly Payne and co-writer Simon Dine of Noonday Underground have listened to their fair share of classic soundtracks while making this album and it's this element to "I.W.I.C.H.L.Y.M." that gives them the edge over their sixties revivalist peers.
"All I Need To Hear" may initially come across as a fairly straightforward R&B number by contrast but listen more closely and you'll become trapped in its web, Payne beckoning you in with the hypnotic mantra "just one little white lie, just one little white lie is all I need from you, what harm can it do?" like a silver voiced siren. "A Different You" is the album's emotional heart and soul, supporting Payne's claim that this is "...pop music on the surface, but (with) an underlying eeriness and loneliness (to it)". The effect of this track is only heightened further by "By Tomorrow" the kind of energetic pop song Girls Aloud would kill to get their hands on, it's got "hit single" written through it like a stick of Brighton rock and this writer will be very surprised if it doesn't go Top Ten. "One More Chance" is a reasonable Shangri-la's pastiche no more, no less and "Hey Goodbye" is a more generic slice of sixities pop that segues nicely into the dreamy ballad "Seasons Change". The album ends on a high with "Turn Back Now" a bittersweet finale to a beguiling album. At just under 35 minutes "I.W.I.C.H.L.Y." is perhaps a little on the short side but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in sheer quality.