- Label
- Island
- Release date
- 15th October 2007
- Genre
- Folk/pop
Irish folk singer clambers into De Lorean, hits 88mph and goes back to 1996
There was a time when the likes of Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos were considered the be-all and end-all when it came to singer-songwriters. However, let’s not forget that during the same era, Ross from Friends was considered a pin-up, wedges were still just about acceptable and everyone liked Menswe@r and the Chris Evans breakfast show. Times, fortunately, have changed.
For everyone except Wallis Bird, it seems. Spoons is a collection of songs which owes so much to Tori Amos’s old work, it’s impossible to view it as anything original; we’re left judging it on its scant merits alone. Opening with a piano and guitar riff so derivative (on Counting To Sleep) that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve put Amos’s Boys For Pele in the CD player by mistake, what follows is almost like a checklist: feisty vocal with screams and yodels (Blossoms In The Street – tick), heartfelt pleas for understanding and originality (6 ft 8, Country Bumpkin – tick) and proto-comical whimsy (every damn song on the album – tick). This is one Spoon-ful you’ll find hard to swallow.
More to try: Tori Amos: Boys For Pele, Little Earthquakes, Strange Little Girls PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea Ani DiFranco: Not A Pretty Girl
