A beacon of eccentricity in a drab world, Rosalie Cunningham has a kaleidoscopic musical brain. To Shoot Another Day is her third studio album, and like its predecessors, it brings the breezily psychedelic and the intricately crafted together in a giant glitter-puff of pure magic.
Still in thrall to the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the convoluted but irresistibly catchy likes of Timothy Martin’s Conditioning School and Denim Eyes twist nostalgia into revelation, as Cunningham’s innate theatricality and clever songwriting casually conjure a gently lysergic otherworld that seems to exist out of time.
A proven writer of great riffs, she excels herself on menacing exposé The Smut Peddler and the gnarly Spook Racket. The title track is a cracked mirror Bond theme, dripping with melodrama; Heavy Pencil fidgets and pirouettes like The Monochrome Set jamming with Grand Funk; and The Premiere rhymes “pyjamas” with “Bahamas” and absolutely gets away with it.
- “I’m trying to coin the phrase ‘spy-chedelic rock’ – but everyone thinks it’s just a typo!” Why Rosalie Cunningham broke the fourth wall with her cinematic sort-of concept album To Shoot Another Day
- “Communal spaces for the strange:…every diversion is explored – ideas and genres ebb and flow, occasionally careering out of control”: Matt Berry’s Heard Noises adheres to his oblique vision
National treasure status is inevitable, surely?
