This wolf has one thing in common with an elephant …
…and that’s a very long gestation period. Truth Is A Wolf almost made an appearance over a year ago: you can still read the online reviews and judging by those (and the original rather wistful folky cover) it took a rather different direction to what we have now.
After various tribulations, industry wrangles (and the addition of new material) it has re-emerged as a highly-polished, muscular mainstream rock vehicle for Mollie’s undoubted vocal prowess: from the high, taut Nashville delivery on the barrelling opener Control, through a sweet, clear Nicksesque timbre on Transformer’s lighters-in-the-air anthem, a seductive almost Kate Bush-like lower register on Run With The Hounds to an impassioned Belinda Carlisle vibrato on the slow AOR waltz of Give Me A Reason.
Stylish arrangements abound, conjuring late era Mac West Coast vibes in Broken’s rim-shot and Fender Rhodes, and the slow and dreamy My Heaven Can Wait; clavinet and staccato guitar lend a funky punch to the title track’s; jangly spacious wah guitar propels the breezy southern-tinged freeway-cruiser Fortunate Fate and there’s more grungy guitar and even synth in the mid-paced AOR of King Of Hearts. Completely out of left field comes Love Your Bones, a surprise mix of eastern flavours, hip hop beats and cello.
Mollie’s backed by an excellent group of musicians, including (amongst others) the likes of Johnson Jay Medwick, Alex Reeve, Stuart Ross, Sam Tanner, Ben Curtis and Jim Stapley: there’s also some bloke called Paul Weller, but don’t let that put you off.
choruses with goose-flesh raising harmonies (much of which are actually Mollie herself), judicious use of atmospheric synths and more than one clever segue from track to track. But it is understandably the terrific vocals that grab the listener: bags of soul, grit and emotion, and just when you think she’s pushed it to the limit mollie somehow finds the power to raise it a notch further.
A very, very accomplished release full of verve and energy that makes the wait worthwhile.
Truth Is A Wolf is released through Amadeus Music on 3rd November