First there was The Eclectic EP. Then came the St Ives EP – Live and Acoustic. And now there is the Faux Americana EP. With each passing Extended Play recording the musical express that is Mary Spender gathers more and more momentum. In eighteen short months her music has evolved from its acoustic folk nascence into a fuller, richer, more soulful sound infused with blues and jazz.
Driven by an emotional maturity and resonance that belies Mary Spender’s twenty three years, Faux Americana possesses great symmetry. Featuring four songs – two each recorded in Nashville and London – and showcasing Spender’s remarkable voice as it travels across the Atlantic from the breathy alto of Rachael Yamagata to the darker sultry side of Nerina Pallot, it is a work that embraces both light and shade.
Harnessing Spender’s chugging guitar and a growing sense of hopelessness, ‘Blues Duet’ takes its place over the opening credits to some long-since forgotten film noir. With its gentle keys and viola and despite its imminent sense of displacement, the warmth and reassurance of ‘Fugitive’ shines through.
And for all that ‘Paperback’ and the radical reworking of her earlier song ‘Melancholy Parade’ were cut in the spiritual home of country music, Spender teases a much greater jazz sensibility out of both songs. “I was in charge” Spender joyously sings during the latter and three EPs into her recording career and with the promise of a début album to come next year you can start to believe her great conviction.
Faux Americana is out on 30th June and can be bought HERE
