Polly Scattergood
Polly Scattergood
Mute
I think we’ve got a psycho stalker girlfriend here. Maybe it’s the creepy vocals, or the clingy relationship-eating attitude, but something feels a bit “off.”
Polly Scattergood is a waifish blonde from the UK who sings with a clear contralto and spends her lyrical time moping about the dark sorts of thoughts teens write in their little poetry notebooks. “Breathe In Breathe Out” might be the clingiest song – even though the person she’s singing to is miles away and making good headway for the French Foreign Legion, she’s still trying to mirror his breathing and seeing his reflection in the mirror. “Untitled 27” points out that “suicidal tendencies drain creativity,” and then gets a bit more depressing as Polly denigrates herself in a painful round of downer nostalgia.
All in all it’s a great album for the evening you realize your One-and-Only has done left you lonely, they ain’t coming back, and it’s probably your fault. You’ll need a tub of Butter Brickle ice cream and a bottle of vodka to complement this disc, but do NOT take the Ambien. Polly maintains an excellent vocal control, and her backup band is quiet and discreet. They add tremolo where tears might fit, backup vocals where a distant voice belongs, and a long flat tone at the end of the album that says “This relationship is dead. No point in calling code blue.” Polly Scattergood has some real potential to replace Kate Bush or Bjork in the Busted Relationship bin at the record store.
http://www.myspace.com/Pollyscattergood; http://www.mute.com
