Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  Songs that Traitors Sing by Maggie and Lucy Lyrical


Songs that Traitors Sing cover art

Artist: Maggie and Lucy Lyrical
Title: Songs that Traitors Sing
Catalogue Number: Grass Roots Records
Review Format: Compact Disc
Release Year: 2014



This EP will feature political content. It has to with a title like “Songs that Traitors Sing”. Well, I suppose that it does but driving the whole thing along is not righteous intent but the kind of self-deprecating humour that is frequently the companion to a close encounter of the lyrically intelligent kind.

Thus, whilst “Beer Goggles (I’m Just Too Sober To Love You)” could easily make Maggie and Lucy Lyrical darlings of the Edinburgh Festival fringe set with its bleakly humorous words, it isn’t the song that will stick in your mind. For that, your affections will find themselves divided between the politically spiralling love story that drives “Tender Militancies” forward and the good old days vibe that powers “In The Days When We Were Radicals”.  Perhaps that’s why our heart is situated slightly to the left of centre in our chest.

“Sleazy Peasy”, in contrast, seems like the odd one out here with the curiously lumpen country flavoured backing track colliding awkwardly with the lady on the loose lyrics. If I close my eyes, I could see Joyce Grenfell in a Che Guevara t-shirt doing it Madonna style up against the kitchen wall. On reflection, that might well be a pleasing thought for some of you.

I smile therefore I am. And I am. Smiling, that is.

The EP is available online from Big Cartel.


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Reviewer:
Review Date: December 16 2014