Utopian Ashes. Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth

Primal Scream's singer Bobby Gillespie teams up with Savages' singer Jehnny Beth. The former came into my life with that great, 'Sympathy For The Devil' inspired, single 'Loaded' in the early 1990s. The latter with the debut album of Savages somewhere in the 10s. Now they present a duo album with songs of love and hate, from the ashes of utopia in the form of the all consuming rise and death of love. "And I don't even love you anymore".

Utopian Ashes is an album far removed from the dance/rock and the punkrock the two are associated with mostly. Beth's solo album of 2020 can be positioned somewhere in between. The more surprising this album is. If anything I'm remembered mostly of the duets of Nancy Sinatra with Lee Hazelwood, like in 'You Can Trust Me Now'. You will find ballads on Utopian Ashes that are of a clean nature, as if from another, far more innocent era. Gillespie's voice cannot match Hazelwood's and that is fine. There was a Hazelwood and that's enough.

The fact that the two chose to present themselves in this ballad setting is somewhat surprising, although not for 100%. Primal Scream played a few great (country) rock inspired ballads at some time, Jehnny Beth hinted at ballads on her solo album 'To Love Is To Live'. Their voices suit the style they chose here, while the duets work as well.

Although Bobby Gillespie overall seems to be more in the lead, when Jehnny Beth does takes over, as e.g. in 'Your Heart Will Always Be Open', out comes a singing in the style of Ellen Foley, minus the bombastic sound of her voice. If anything Utopian Ashes is a mellow album. The end of love, the prediction of that end, does not reflect itself in the music. The mellow, slightly melancholy sounding music reflects resignation more than anything else. That this is what it is feeling, until love comes by once again and the cycle starts all over again.

The album grows because of the changes in instrumental accompaniment. The piano and strings basis of 'You Don't Know What Love Is', works very well. The song is in a style like The Beatles (and then The Rolling Stones) played some of their ballads in the 1960s, though more rigid and strict. More 'Lady Jane' than 'Eleanor Rigby', to give two examples. In 'Living A Lie' Jehnny Beth does a Charlotte Gainsbourg successfully. Whispering like the French chanteuse, she goes deep down into the sentiments the song presents..

All in all Utopian Ashes is an impressive, ballad driven album, but in the end a few songs too long. The sound is just a little too uniform to keep me on my toes for the full nine songs. That said, the songs are all beautiful and individually convincing. Listening in small doses, is the solution here.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Utopian Ashes here:

https://bobbyjehnny.bandcamp.com/album/utopian-ashes

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g