After a hiatus that saw singer Skin embark on a solo career while her colleagues variously undertook session work, tuition and a prolonged stint on the Feeder drum stool, Skunk Anansie emerged sounding reinvigorated on 2010’s Wonderlustre.
This fifth album builds on the confidence its predecessor engendered, moving the band (four original members and explosive chemistry all present and correct) toward shooting-at-the-stars epics. It’s an easy fit – the remarkable Skin was always a vocalist capable of singing out of her, well, skin, so the skyscraping ambition of these tunes is second nature.
The forcefulness is empowering on the unforgiving Sad Sad Sad – a stuttering beat, mewling harmonies, pulverising drive and Skin’s curdled bellow producing a vintage conflagration. The band’s martial attack finds phosphorescent focus in I Believed In You, a reminder of Skin’s ability to deliver an irrefutable kiss-off with lines such as ‘Let your blood flow freely so your voice can choke’ finding the bullseye.
The lady’s scale-soaring range and defiant spirit recall a metal-enhanced Eurythmics-era Annie Lennox. The warm and languorous I Hope You Get To Meet Your Hero, awash with cascading synthesised strings and growling bass, and the mesmerising finale Diving Down provide further highlights. Black Traffic, pretty terrific.
