Fudge, Liverpool, 23 August 2004

A few weeks ago I received a review copy of Cathy Davey’s debut album, SOMETHING ILK, and liked its inventive and quite intense tone. It’s also an accessible album with strong diversity of pace and mood. Davey is the UK’s newest singer/songwriter and an interesting prospect on the strength of the album. The opportunity to see her in live action would serve to confirm the young lady’s talent, and ultimately it did.

Accompanied by her band consisting of keyboards, bass and drums (both played by the guys from the Verve), Davey mounted the stage with her guitar and immediately made an impression. She’s a quite beautiful young lady and looking through my camera viewfinder at her profile, she reminded me of Tori Amos.

With a good sized audience in front of her, she seemed tense. I understand that she’d just played the V Festival and the Oxegen Festival in Dublin, so audiences are not a new experience for her. I therefore suspect that the tension was down to her wanting to perform at her best. She needn’t have worried.

The funky Yak Yak from her new album was an ideal opener with its slow and calculating vibe and strong melody. Typically, the instrumental backdrop was stark and beat-driven. Vocally, Davey sounds like a cross between one of my favourite artists Carina Round, and another, the aforementioned Tori Amos. While the room’s acoustic quality wasn’t ideal, Davey sounded great and I could see the audience suddenly stop drinking and talking to take notice.

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Next was one of my favourites from the new album. Hammerhead is a song with strong pop sensibilities and travels along at slow-medium pace driven by another strong melody and a darker lyrical sub-text. It was another very good performance. The next song I recognised was the bouncy and hyper-melodic Clean & Neat which I think could be a charting single.

This was turning out to be one of those special, very involving performances by a young lady capable of cracking the hardest of critical hearts. Her style is intense and very expressive, both the important prerequisites for a quality singer/songwriter. The diversity and quality of her material became clear as she sang most of the songs from her album including Holy Moly, Swing It, Trade Secret, Cold Man’s Nightmare, and Go Make It.

At the end of a wonderful performance many in the audience went over to greet Davey, a sure sign that she had left her mark. Her looks, repertoire and vocal delivery combine to create something that is eminently suitable for music-lovers looking for something different, meaningful and accessible - in a market plagued by the ordinary and mediocre.

I understand the album is now out and suspect Cathy Davey will be promoting it via live performances over the coming months. I strongly commend both to you.