I tweeted about this track last week, but let’s face it, a tweet is a momentary and rather lightweight method of supporting an artist. So, here’s a slightly longer blog post. In fact, it would have been a little odd if I didn’t write about the return of this musician considering how many times I’ve writen about her in the past, from her early bedroom demos through to signing the dotted line with Sunday Best records and her debut album.
Alice Jemima is back and she returns with a bop. All the trademark elements that made me fall in love with Alice’s music are still present - the smooth honeyed vocals, the unfussy songwriting and the snappy guitar sounds that owe a fair amount of debt to The XX - but this time round there’s an increased level of dancefloor energy rather than her normal quietly chilled delivery. This probably has something to do with the fact that the track was co-written with one of the queens of the disco, the one and only Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The collaboration goes further than just this song though, with Alice due to support Sophie on her UK tour this summer.
Icarus is of course a character from Greek mythology who together with his father attempted to escape from Crete by wings constructed of feather and wax, but flew too close to the sun leading to the wax melting, the wings being destroyed and Icarus falling to his death. Here we find Alice singing cautiously of love and relating it to the tale of Icarus. Can love be too perfect? Can you be blinded by it? Or is there a risk of those beautiful highs leading to you flying metaphorically too close to the sun and falling? The song is a plea for that not to happen.
It’s also a wonderful pop record.
Alice Jemima - Icarus
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