I spent a very surreal evening at a boozer in Belsize Park the other night. Eileen Daly And The Courtesans were playing a gig there and were equally surprised to find themselves sandwiched between locals stepping up and playing covers at what can only be described as open-mic night. Still this didn’t put them off knocking out some of their original songs and throwing in a cover of Delilah, which is still going round in my head days later, for good measure. Deciding to leave the live review until they play a launch for new EP on Dec 1st at the more palatable surroundings of London’s 12 Bar, that leaves me just their new disc to tell you about.
Eileen is well known as a scream queen (although to be fair it’s normally her making others do the screaming) and has appeared in films such as Cradle Of Fear and the great Razorblade Smile, she also started a musical career with the band Jezebel on Nigel Wingrove’s Triple Silence record label. Eileen seems much more comfortable fronting The Courtesans who play a form of highly original gypsy-laden rock with aspects of glam as well as a deep social commentary at play amongst their lyrics. The three songs here which you can check out on their MySpace page serve as a good introduction of what exactly to expect.
‘Mazeltof’ has a cheeky lounge style which if anything reminds of the sort of thing sung by Edith Piaf. It picks up and waltzes into a quirky and jaunty number and the lyrics fly out quickly and bounce around you in a song that is done quickly and leaves you wanting to give it another listen straight away. ‘Peckham Rolex’ centres on the English disease of chav culture and takes the piss out of those who drape themselves in bling and Burberry and infect our country. In case you were wondering the title describes an electronic tag handed out to those horrible little herberts to keep them in curb, although they tend to use them as status symbols more than anything else. Again it’s a very infectious number with a chorus that hooks into your head and won’t let go. The disc also has a video promo clip on it that for some reason takes me back to the sort of amusing and deranged videos we used to get by the likes of The Cure. Finally there is ‘Doll’ a bit of a cautionary tale about lost childhood toys or even innocence that is played out with deranged, dark nursery tale zeal.
Although this doesn’t fit into our normal sort of parameters and is neither metal, gothic or straight up rock Eileen Daly And The Courtesans are a treat for those of you wanting something a little different so check them out and you may too find yourself elfing around, mazeltof!
http://www.myspace.com/thecourtisans
