New Music: Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Come With Us (Video)

Yesterday on the blog I mentioned disco, in connection with the new single from Scottish five piece White, because at least two blogs that posted the song had described it as such. Yet to a large extent its ‘disconess’ didn’t resonate with me as sounding anything like it. So today here’s my version of disco;  it’s the new single from Sophie Ellis-Bextor. 

Some of you may remember that Sophie has a special place in the heart of Breaking More Waves; her last album Wanderlust made my 2014 end of year list. It surprised me with its ambition, its beauty and its originality: “The finest work of her career – an accomplished and mature record that takes in Eastern European folk, fairytale and mid-life crisis reference points and wraps them up into a captivating and enchanting listen.” Of course not all of Sophie’s fans were pleased with Wanderlust, deviating as it did so far from what you’d normally expect from her. 

Now for 2016 she’s back and debut single Come With Us is likely to bring those displaced fans back on board. It is as I’ve already suggested, very disco. It's grooves and licks have been on loud a lot at Breaking More Waves HQ over the last few days and there's been a lot of shimmying in the bedroom. In a similar manner to something like Daft Punk’s Get Lucky (the song of the decade so far?), the cut has been created using live musicians rather than just computer software and samples, giving it a more natural feeling, something which many electronic reproductions fail to do with the genre.

Come With Us is taken from Sophie’s next album, Familia, due September 2nd. In a statement released with the promo package for the single we’re promised an album that sees Sophie “move away from Eastern Europe to the warmer, sunnier climate of South America where she’s swapped vodka for tequila.” It sounds intoxicating. Come join the cult of Sophie and dance with her.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Come With Us (Video)

Albums of the Year 2014 #6 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Wanderlust

From Breaking More Waves, May 2014:

“You know all those end of year album lists? We wonder when most people start thinking about them? If you’re anything like us (and frankly we hope you’re not) then you started in January. And one of those early contenders that we suspect come December will still be in the running for a place on the list is Sophie Ellis Bextor’s Wanderlust.

From Breaking More Waves, August 2014:

“Sophie’s 2014 Ed Harcourt produced album Wanderlust is the finest work of her career – an accomplished and mature record that takes in Eastern European folk, fairytale and mid-life crisis reference points and wraps them up into a captivating and enchanting listen. We suspect it will find a place on our end of year favourite album list.”

Now

No surprises here then. Forget everything you knew about the disco-dolly-chart-topping Sophie Ellis-Bextor.  If Wanderlust is Sophie’s approaching middle-age pop album, then middle age suits her very well indeed. Beautifully sung with impeccably written songs, you get a real sense that this is the album Sophie Ellis-Bextor really wanted make for herself rather than any pop success. Ironically by doing so Wanderlust became Sophie Ellis Bextor’s highest charting album (top 5) since her solo debut Read My Lips, and deservedly so.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Runaway Dreamer (Video)

Sophie Ellis Bextor - The Deer And The Wolf (Video)

Look, let’s just make this absolutely clear shall we? Forget your preconceived ideas. Sophie Ellis Bextor’s 2014 album Wanderlust is a wonderful example of brilliantly written songs and of content over style. Sure it’s not the most challenging record, but does everything in life have to be challenging to make it enjoyable? Try telling that to any parent of a new baby that won’t stop crying. “Oh but the challenge of the lack of sleep makes the whole think so much more enjoyable doesn’t it?” You’ll probably get a punch in the face in return.

Come on Mercury Music prize judges, pull a little surprise and amongst the likes of FKA Twigs or whatever on it sound of 2014 type artists you choose, put Sophie Ellis Bextor’s name in the hat as well please.

The Deer And The Wolf is the latest single to be lifted from the album and deals with the roles we all take in relationships. “On and on and on my love, agree to disagree, under the surface it’s role reversal, the opposites decree,” sings Sophie in her unique voicebefore concluding at the end that “we’re in this together, you’re the only one.” Lovely.

Sophie Ellis Bextor - The Deer And The Wolf (Video)

Victorious Festival 2014 - Preview

In the over-crowded UK festival market any new entrants need to have a strong unique selling point. Victorious Festival, set in Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth has a pretty simple one – price. Early bird tickets retailed at just £15 per day before they were increased to £20 showing that it is seemingly possible to run a festival with some reasonably heavyweight names topping the bill (this year sees the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Seastick Steve, Naughty Boy, 2 Many DJs and Tom Odell) without charging exorbitant prices.

How does the festival achieve this? Some of the answers seem to include ramming in the punters, using plenty of cheap or unpaid local artists to flesh out the line-up and by the organisers maximising income by running the bars themselves rather than another company. And talking of alcohol let’s be honest here, Portsmouth as a city likes a drink; last year’s event just couldn’t cope with demand and if those in charge have any sense they’ll be increasing the bar lengths, numbers and staff for 2014.

Bars reaching capacity was just one of a number of teething problems the festival had in its first year as Victorious Festival (having previously run as Victorious Vintage) when it was held in the unusual setting of the historic dockyard in Portsmouth; food stalls had long queues and on the first of the two days it was reported that many of them ran out of food completely. Also the portaloo layout appeared to have been designed by someone with very little experience of festivals, meaning that servicing and queues became problematic. However, given the bargain price and general good-spirited nature of the event, these issues didn’t particularly detract.

However, 2014 finds the event relocating onto Southsea seafront, giving more space and more capacity for everything, hopefully ironing out the problems from 2013.

Being a city based festival Victorious will populated by many locals and its line-up and attractions are curated very much with a something for everyone ideology, but with a strong bias to b-list Brit-pop and beyond bands; Shed Seven, Menswear, Ocean Colour Scene, Razorlight, The Pigeon Detectives and Mark Morris from The Bluetones all appear. You’ll also find X-Factor contestant Lucy Spraggon, alt-rock from British Sea Power, electro hip-hop from Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip playing their second to last show ever plus Beatles and Rolling Stones tribute bands.

So you can take your pick from those or the many other artists on the bill, or you can try the headphone disco, watch skaters and riders demos in Southsea Skate Park, visit the nearby  the D-Day museum, watch the sharks at the Blue-Reef Aquarium, explore Southsea Castle, visit the boutique market stalls, the real ale festival or the kids arena.

Alternatively you can try and catch the following Breaking More Waves approved acts. See you down the front for these? (Line up clashes permitting)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor : Castle Stage  (Saturday)

She might be best known for her disco pop hits such as Murder On The Dance Floor, Take Me Home and Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) but Sophie’s 2014 Ed Harcourt produced album Wanderlust is the finest work of her career – an accomplished and mature record that takes in Eastern European folk, fairytale and mid-life crisis reference points and wraps them up into a captivating and enchanting listen. We suspect it will find a place on our end of year favourite album list.



Public Service Broadcasting : Seaside Stage (Saturday)

One of the great independent success stories of 2013, Public Service Broadcasting’s unique performances mash up video footage, guitars, vocal samples and a sense of humour to deliver a show that wins people over wherever they play.



Slow Club :  Acoustic Stage (Sunday)

From their early d-i-y country folk outings to their latest record Complete Surrender, Slow Club’s music has evolved, boldly stepping into a new soulful world whilst retaining their gorgeous vocal interplay and tenderness. Watch out for the bands often comical banter with the audience and expect more than the odd goose-bump moment as Rebecca sings.



Kassassin Street : Seaside Stage (Sunday)

“Capturing Eastern mysticism, psychedelia and a free flowing looseness, this five-piece have an exhilarating vibrancy and energy to their sound.” That’s how we previously described indie rockers Kassassin Street. That sounds about right. What we didn’t say was that they are also quite possibly Portsmouth’s finest live band - expect grooves and noise.



Eloise Keating : Acoustic Stage (Sunday)

Local singer songwriter Eloise Keating picked up her first Hype Machine listed blog appearance on Breaking More Waves and has subsequently been featured on a number of respected sites site as Line of Best Fit and The Von Pip Musical Express with her Great Gatsby inspired song Be My Ghost (The Green Light). Since then she’s been taken under the wing by same people behind one of our favourite (and ever on it) boutique record labels Duly Noted (IYES, The Night VI, Black Honey etc) and is beavering away writing new material. Victorious Festival is a chance to hear Eloise road-test some of these songs in an acoustic form before fuller electronic versions surface as well as perhaps a cover or two.





We’ll be carrying a full review of Victorious Festival 2014 shortly after it finishes. It takes place on Southsea seafront on the 23rd and 24th August 2014. Tickets info can be found using this link.

Sophie Ellis Bextor - Love Is A Camera (Video)

You know all those end of year album lists? We wonder when most people start thinking about them? If you’re anything like us (and frankly we hope you’re not) then you started in January. And one of those early contenders that we suspect come December will still be in the running for a place on the list is Sophie Ellis Bextor’s Wanderlust.

Switching from disco-diva towards mature pop songsmith with tunes that are in part inspired by Eastern Europe and fairytales has been a smart move for Sophie. This fantastic new gothic and dark video for Love Is A Camera captures perfectly the essence and style of one of our favourite songs from the album (it’s also her granny’s favourite apparently) with Sophie turning black-witch (a part she plays incredibly well) and capturing more than just the image of unfortunate souls by the power of the lens. At the end as the screams ring out you might even find yourself doing some Russian Cossack dancing.

Sophie Eliis-Bextor - Love Is A Camera (Video)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Runaway Dreamer

A couple of days ago we asked via the medium of Twitter what our followers favourite albums of the first two months of 2014 were. The responses were varied but two that cropped up regularly were the new records by St Vincent and Young Fathers. Having given both a spin we can only conclude that our Twitter followers have damn fine taste – both are remarkably good albums.

However, one long-player that nobody mentioned but that has found itself on regular repeat at Breaking More Waves HQ is Wanderlust, the new solo effort from Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It’s Sophie’s mid-life crisis orchestral pop album, a poised and sophisticated part-concept record that finds her turning her back on shimmying around the dancefloor and taking influence from her travels (particularly Eastern Europe), fairytales, and relationships. If anything it’s more similar to her work with theaudience than anything she’s produced in the last fourteen years.

From Wanderlust comes a new single, the lovely Runaway Dreamer, which finds Sophie dreaming of another life, running wild beyond ‘the walls that hold me back’, before admitting that it’s just her imagination and that ‘don’t worry baby I’m here to stay.’ It’s a delightfully romantic song, full of light airy melody and deliciously sung in Sophie’s distinctive prim English rose style.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Runaway Dreamer

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Young Blood (Video)

If you follow Breaking More Waves on twitter you’ll know that we have a rather soft spot for the music of Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It’s easy to tag Sophie as a Strictly Come Dancing contestant or the daughter of a Blue Peter presenter, but let’s not forget that she’s also a singer and one with a distinctive voice as well. Early in 2014 Sophie returns with a new album called Wanderlust and it finds her moving away from her mainstream dance pop sound, to a more classic, sophisticated and dramatic style.

The first track to be released from the new long-player is Young Blood, which was originally given away to fans in demo form as a free download earlier this year, and if anything it harks back to Sophie’s work with the band she was originally in; theaudience (yes no capitals or gap). In particular anyone who owns the band’s debut album may remember there was a limited edition 2 cd set and on the 2nd cd there were a number of piano versions of songs. Young Blood comes close to those tunes in style, although Sophie's vocal delivery has improved with age, being lighter and dare we say it more in tune, whilst the song itself surpasses pretty much anything from that record.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be out on the road next year with a one off sold-out date at Bush Hall in London in January followed by a full UK tour in April which includes two dates at the Union Chapel, also in London. We can only assume with choices of venue like that the chances of her whopping out her disco pumpers and shimmying like a beast on stage to tunes such as Groovejet, Murder On The Dancefloor or the rather naughty Fuck With You in their original forms is really quite unlikely.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Young Blood (Video)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Starlight

Ask pretty much anyone (except Sophie Ellis-Bextor fans) to name another Sophie Ellis-Bextor song besides Murder On The Dancefloor and they’ll probably struggle, which is a real shame because over the years Sophie has produced some pop classics. Let’s remind ourselves. Take Me Home (A Girl Like Me), a number 2 UK hit single, Get Over You (no.3), Mixed Up World (no.7), Music Gets The Best Of Me (no.14) and of course her track with Spiller – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) a bona fide number 1 hit single that stayed in the charts for nearly half a year.

And even before that there was ‘indie Sophie’ with her band Theaudience (the no gap between the two words was important for artily cool points) and songs with titles that have never been repeated since – If You Can’t Do It When You’re Young When Can You Do It ? and A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed.

There was and is a Sophie Ellis-Bextor song for everyone (ok well not hip hop dudes or hairy metal kids perhaps) and now the woman who shimmies like we have seen no other woman shimmy on stage is back, with a reasonably blissful piece of dance pop entitled Starlight, that whilst not being quite on a par with all of the songs just mentioned is still pleasant enough and because it’s Sophie and because Breaking More Waves has a big place in its heart for pop and Sophie, we’re streaming it for your listening pleasure so you can make your own mind up. Irrespective of the (we suspect) lack of chart success and radio play this song will bring Sophie, we’ll love her till the end, because pop music isn’t just about brilliant songs it’s about brilliant people.

The new Sophie Ellis-Bextor album Make A Scene is out on June 6 and finds Sophie working with the likes of The Freemasons, Greg Kurstin, Calvin Harris, Cathy Dennis, Metronomy, Richard X and Armin Van Buuren. That's a date for our diary at least.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Starlight