Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Albums come and go, pop stars appear and disappear with frightening regularity and yet the artist digs away at your soul with a kindness and sincerity that those who litter the charts of popularity can probably never hope to achieve. The artist stays in the listener’s heart and makes themselves at home forever. Even with a large distance in time between albums, what comes along can be thrilling, soulful and takes the listener on the next stage of their life hand in hand with them.
With a handful of solo albums and E.P.s to her name as well as the critically acclaimed albums she has released as part of Shakespeares Sister, Marcella Detroit storms back and continues the digging process with the gentle, the outrageously beautiful and musically funky The Vehicle.
As with some of the great emotionally charged and well-made albums of the past 40 years, there is no warning of what to expect, just the inkling in the recess of the mind that no matter what life has thrown in the musician’s path she has created some interesting and towering music. The Vehicle keeps up this fine tradition of heartfelt creativity and with a set of musicians giving their all for the album, including the superb guitars of Sam Meek, Johnny Lee Schell and tantalising brass arrangements by Paul Litteral, Paulie Cerra and Stan Behrens, the music washes over the listener as if a comforting wave lapping at the edge of the listener’s appreciation.
It’s sometimes a challenge to pick out great tracks as the process can be subjective but in some cases the album is so full, so crammed with the idea of creative ingenuity and the motion of power running through it that to name one or two does the album disservice. However with beauty of Goddess in Despair, Good Girl Down, the fantastic My Own Backyard and the bonus track of Stay 2013 in the recording there is a multitude of way to understand why the fans fell in love with her all those years ago and why they continue to do so.
Whatever your mode of transport to get you through life, whatever way you listen to music as you go through the miles on your own milometer, listening to Marcella Detroit’s The Vehicle will make the journey a more pleasant experience. The Vehicle is beautiful and funky, a combination to gladden the soul.
Ian D. Hall