Friday, October 28, 2016

Morning Music: "Dust" by Jude McGee and the Soft Touch

After hearing "No Word from China" by pel mel a little while back, I found out that the band's singer, Jude McGee, has been working on a new project with her band the Soft Touch. Her album The Household Guide to Heartbreak has a polished, adult contemporary feel (as does her re-imagining of "No Word from China" (a free download definitely worth checking out)) that calls to mind The Beautiful South and Brandi Disterheft's 2009 album Second Side. Kicking off The Household Guide to Heartbreak, "Dust" opens with a charming flamenco guitar riff and a whistled melody straight out of an Enrico Morricone movie, and when a surf guitar joins the spare arrangement, the picture is complete: this is a song of loss and loneliness, but also a song of survival. McGee's haunting vocal floats through the track like the ghost of a shattered relationship, and there's a kind of creepy subtle electronic scratching noise that skitters through the song like a rat pawing through a long-abandoned home.

"Dust" is available for $1 (AUD) on BandCamp, and The Household Guide to Heartbreak is available for $10. If you like it, buy it.

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