Fe Salomon - Living Rooms 
Release Date: 27th January 2023
This might be the debut album from Fe Salomon but it is easily one of the most ambitious, creative and eccentric collections you're likely to hear this year or any other for that matter. Like a tour of an overgrown hidden garden though, you may need a guide so let's go for a little walk, shall we? Former single 'Polka Dot' gets things started with a percussion vs vocal duet until the rest of the music kicks in and we're taken on a jerky dance down the crazy paving towards a gap in the hedge. 'Colour Sounds' breathes in to life like a malfunctioning steam powered robot being booted up for the first time in years with Salomon's hypnotic vocal taking centre stage in among the scattered melodies and percussion.
There's a darker feel to 'Wired on Caffeine' which shudders and shimmies with PJ Harvey meets Paloma Faith style before 'All Or Nothing' slides in full of elegance and mystique on a bed of strings and louche vocals. There is an underlying cinematic tone to this album and 'Creatures of Habit' is a great example of this as the strings and piano roll and rumble together like waves stirring at the foot of a sheer cliff, forewarning of an incoming storm. Another former single, 'Quintessential England', sounds like a Cure record played at the wrong speed but speaks of the failure of trying to move in to the English countryside but missing the urban buzz.
Each track on this album is like a new and exotic flower that reveals more colour and more fragrance the more time you spend with it so don't rush, take your time in this garden of delights. The electric 'Super Human', for example, fizzes with neon energy a la Goldfrapp while 'Interstate 10' swoons like a purple sunset over a cocktail bar in the middle of the desert. On 'Due Respect', Salomon combines an emotional wrought vocal performance with luscious strings and a production quality that sounds like an AI interpretation of a Bond theme. Penultimate track 'Bright As Day' is bombastic and luxurious in every sense but the closing song 'Taxi Cabs' is far more subdued as the blend of strings and vocals speak of a city at night in all its glorious shades of darkness. This is the kind of album that deserves and demands your attention but rewards that commitment with layers of delight and intrigue. A stunning album but an astounding debut.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/fesalomon