Eleanor McEvoy has always occupied a resolutely individual place in music, writing about the trials and tribulations of everyday life with a canny eye for detail and a knowing heart that boasts strength and warmth in equal measures. Musically, it's hard to pin McEvoy down to one particular style, and it's this diversity that invests her recordings with a constantly evolving freshness, anchored firmly around the undeniable allure of her potent voice and carefully crafted arrangements. I'd Rather Go Blonde, McEvoy's eighth album since her eponymous debut in 1993, seems to plough a particularly personal furrow, marrying wry eccentricities with reflective and intimate reveries.
As if to accentuate her steadfast individuality, McEvoy begins with the immediate confidence of "Look Like Me," in which she brushes aside the empty vagaries of the latest fashion, eschewing airbrushed conformity in favour of her own hard-won contentment and self-assurance. The title track provides further affirmation that McEvoy knows her own mind, putting a former or potential lover well and truly in their place. Harking back to her classical background, chic string arrangements ensure both these songs portray further indelible traits of McEvoy's unique musical personality.
On several occasions, McEvoy casts a keen eye over her homeland, happy to speak of her love for Ireland without shying away from what she perceives as its flaws. The wistful "Just For The Tourists" looks beyond the superficial attractions to a more subtle, hidden beauty and the reality that accompanies it: "they can't see the face that haunts you." The fall from grace of the Celtic Tiger is articulately expressed in "Shibboleth," with a lyric and melody soaked in celtic mysticism, proudly recalling a country basking in the spotlight and contrasting this with the pain as its people fall on hard times. "Deliver Me (From What You Do)" weaves religious tones around a scathing narrative where McEvoy admonishes the Catholic Church, highlighting its hypocrisy: "what would Jesus say to you?" The gregorian chant that provides the song's coda lends a dramatic contrast to the strident beats over which the lyrics are delivered. This is a powerful trio of songs, portraying the feelings of pride, fondness and disgust that emanate from today's Ireland.
For me, McEvoy's calling card has always been her ability to deploy humour and contemporary language in depicting modern day relationships. The legal jargon that dominates "For Avoidance Of Any Doubt" seems to hint at the inevitable denouement of a one-sided relationship, with a droll, tongue-in-cheek demeanour that makes this playful number particularly enjoyable. "Take You Home" has a different focus, musing over the unrelenting temptation of a forbidden love, whilst the subtle disco beats of "The Thought Of You" provide a more sanguine viewpoint of similar yearnings.
Having begun my formative late-teens listening to Eleanor McEvoy's debut album, it remains a pleasure and continued source of reassurance to catch up with her latest heartwarming contemplations and colourful vignettes of day to day life. McEvoy bemoans the loneliness of life on the road on "Away From You," declaring a weariness of playing "music with a melody, no one wants to hear." I can wholeheartedly counsel that the melodies of Eleanor McEvoy provide music that everybody should want to hear, and in which much solace and strength can be abundantly found.
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