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Mark Lester
Something Else
Spare Shoe Records SPSH0701
Composer/keyboards
player Mark Lester lists, among his many influences, everyone from Bach
and Vaughan Williams to Abdullah Ibrahim and Thelonious Monk, Joni Mitchell
and Paul Simon to Cole Porter and the Pet Shop Boys, and there is a welcome
broad-mindedness and musical adventurousness to this album, for which he
wrote all the words and music.
Its basic category is light, funky soul laced with the odd jazz inflection courtesy of the contributions to it of the likes of drummer Dylan Howe, flautist Steve Rubie and the fruitily multi-textured saxophonist Julian Webster-Greaves; its songs are reports from the front lines of the emotional conflict involved in getting over a lover's defection ('Don't Take Too Long to Say Goodbye'), holding a torch for someone ('Moonlight Blues') or ridding yourself of unwelcome mental baggage (the almost Morrissey-like yearner 'Give Yourself a Chance').
A variety of singers are showcased, including the assured Polly Gibbons and the affecting Celena Bain, and there is also the odd slinky instrumental to leaven the mix; overall, this is a treat for those who like their soul tuneful, tasteful and relatively restrained; when was the last time you heard an oboe and a cor anglais used on an album in this genre?
