279) Kirsty MacColl - Tropical Brainstorm

I had my son for the night and took him back to my ex-wife, she had the television on and it was the news and there was Kirsty MacColl, I assumed it was to do with Fairytale of New York as we were near Christmas and thought no more about it, this was pre internet days remember.  Later that night the ten o’clock news was on, and I heard that tragically Kirsty had been killed in a horrific accident. For the next few days Kite, Electric Landlady, Titanic Days and Tropical Brainstorm barely left my CD player.

Tropical, the last album released in her lifetime and had been inspired with MacColl’s trips to Cuba, so samba rhythms and Latin drums dominate the tracks. This makes for a diverting listen but for me a Kirsty MacColl record is that voice. Opener Mambo de la Luna cannot help but draw you in even though I have no idea what she is saying.

In These Shoes? is genius over a sassy beat Kirsty points out many a reason she cannot leave with men to be seduced due to her choice of shoes and then the trumpet kicks in, superior, brilliant music and Treachery is an excellent story of Kirsty stalking an ex fan particularly irked when he has the audacity to buy a CD by a female artist that is not her. Here Comes That Man Again must be heard for the ending of “sha la la la la, get your rocks off baby.”

Celestine the backing of the chorus elevates it to an even catchier song and as a Scotsman I’d prefer the title to be England 0 Colombia 2 but I cannot have everything as she details how she was nearly seduced by an adulterer “But I am free and single and he’s a lying git,” We talk about her voice but what a way she had with words.

US Amazonians is a story in a song and Wrong Again her vocal seems fragile and Designer Life she is clear that is not the life for her, and we end with Head where we get to enjoy her voice over minimal music.

Kirsty MacColl is one of those people you would imagine would have been great company and a good friend. She was also a bloody major talent and lets says it again, a major loss.

8/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: In These Shoes?