MARIA McKEE's Life is Sweet

Maria McKee - Life is Sweet. An introduction

2010-08-22T12:41:00.000+01:00

I first became aware of Maria McKee sometime around the Spring of 1993 when I saw the video for her not-so-hit single I’m Gonna Soothe You on ITV’s The Chart Show. I have to admit, being the naive young thing I was, I was more taken with her happy smile and the frisky snails than the record itself. It was only later, when I heard the same song on the radio, that I noticed the ex-Lone Justice singer had a voice.

I mean, she really had a voice.

Then I heard her take on Goffin and King’s I Can’t Make It Alone and just the way she sang the word “always” was enough to make me hand over the money for the album. By the time Life is Sweet came out, three years later, I was a confirmed fan and the record did nothing to disabuse me of that emotion. While there were some who were alienated by the album - wanting yet another easily accessible collection of country blues songs - for me, with its jarring guitars, sweeping strings and determined psychodrama, it was by far the best thing I’d ever heard from her and remains to this day my favourite album of the 1990s.

Sadly, this enthusiasm wasn’t shared by the world at large. Despite some rave reviews, it sold poorly and led to Maria and Geffen Records going their separate ways. It just goes to show that people don’t always get the success they deserve and that, despite the album’s hopeful title, life is not always sweet.

Still, there’s that wonderful thing called the Internet, through which fans like me can express our love in ways we never could have done in the long ago past, and the hope that somehow, by a process of attrition, all resistance to Maria may one day be worn down and the whole world will come to love the album that can only be described in its own words as absolutely barking stars

That's what this blog is about. It's for me to share my thoughts on the album's various tracks and if, in that process, just one person is convinced to buy or (legally) download the thing, I'll feel my time here wasn't wasted.

And if not?

Well, like the characters in its songs, at least I'll have given vent to my obsession.

Scarlover

2010-08-21T15:14:00.000+01:00

Life is Sweet kicks off as it means to go on, with a guitar chord that feels like you’re being stabbed in the forehead.

Actually, the stabbing analogy’s probably not a bad one, considering Scarlover seems to be about a relationship in which both parties get their kicks from mutual self-mutilation. “You turned the blade on me -- and I loved it,” declares McKee in a seemingly insane state of over-excitement.

Having said that, the fact McKee sings of being ugly inside suggests the damage being done by both parties may be psychological rather than physical. I hope so as that’s a more interesting and frankly less icky concept.

There’s a live version of Scarlover knocking around on Youtube which shows just how close to musical disaster and self-parody the song skirts, as Maria, with her then common lack of restraint, starts to sound dangerously like Boris Karloff as she sings the, “Ugly inside of me, taught me of beauty,” line but in the studio she stays just the right side of such silliness and thus it’s a great introduction to the album. Like the title track of Sgt Pepper, Scarlover's not the best song on the album but it is a pretty good one and, with its overwrought melodrama and lurid imagery, sets the tone for the rest of the record. Not to mention that, propelled by Ric Kavins’ drums and Maria’s guitar, the thing sweeps along on a tide of its own stop-for-nothing urgency and bristling energy. Right from the off you know this is an album that’s not going to compromise for anyone.

This Perfect Dress

2010-08-20T12:36:00.000+01:00

Track two of Life is Sweet sees McKee slow to a more stately but no less melodramatic pace as we get a lovely song about the joys of sewing.

Well. No. Clearly it’s not. It appears to be the tale of a woman making a dress from the skin of her dead lover. In this way McKee seems to be partly inspired by the classic movie/novel Silence of the Lambs.

Of course, this is only a guess on my part, the lyrics of This Perfect Dress being as resolutely opaque as those of most of Life is Sweet’s twelve offerings, and my guesses aren’t always to be relied upon. For years I was convinced Paul McCartney’s 1972 hit C Moon was a treatise on the fact that no matter how well we think we know someone the major part of them will always remain a mystery. This was based on the fact that a C-shaped moon is a crescent moon, the vast majority of its presence lying unseen.

As it turned out “C Moon” was simply McCartney’s shorthand for “cool”. This should serve as a warning that my stabs as to what this or any other songs on the album are about can never be more than open to question.

What isn’t in question is the hypnotic nature of This Perfect Dress, a song that rarely ventures far from its circular central melody whilst built on an endlessly repeating bassline that strongly mirrors the riff from the BeeGees’ hit Tragedy. Whether this “pilfering” was deliberate or not, I don’t know.

I like to think it is. Given This Perfect Dress’s stark and doom-laden feel, it’d certainly be an appropriate appropriation.

The track gives us McKee’s first guitar solo of the album and, while no one could label her guitar playing subtle, sophisticated, skillful or even inspired, its crudeness and uncompromising nature shows her sausage-fingered style to be perfect for an album that takes no prisoners.

Absolutely Barking Stars

2010-08-19T12:39:00.000+01:00

There are two songs on Maria McKee’s Life is Sweet that sound like they’ve been drafted in from a demented but kitchen-sink musical. Absolutely Barking Stars is the first of them as McKee gives us the tale of a woman with a split personality who ultimately comes to embrace her internal “twin”.

While most complaints about Life is Sweet tend to come from people who struggled to accept the woman from Lone Justice departing so drastically from their expectations, the one legitimate complaint about the album is that its production and style of songs means it doesn’t fully show off Maria’s powerhouse vocal abilities but here at least we do get a glimpse of them in Absolutely Barking Stars’ epic chorus which gives Maria the chance to fully open her lungs. Granted, the mix means her voice isn’t as to the fore as it would’ve been on previous albums but, for those with ears to listen, it’s there.

Also getting a run out is her guitar playing which, as before, is raw and frenetic but this time carrying strong echoes of Queen.

Ultimately, for all its keen lyrics and theatrical twists, the thing that perhaps reminds us most that Maria’s a mistress of her craft, on top of her game, is the song’s ending in which she doesn’t bother to sing the last line, letting it dangle as the track simply ends. The final line doesn’t need to be sung - we get the message and Maria knows it.

It’s great stuff and it’s hard to think of anyone else around at that time, or possibly any other time, who could have written and performed Absolutely Barking Stars, making it one of the stand-out tracks on a stand-out album.

I’m Not Listening

2010-08-18T16:44:00.000+01:00

So, the musical that Maria McKee never wrote continues apace with its second extract, as I’m Not Listening appears to offer us a girl who, subjected to endless bullying, plots her deadly revenge.

As with Absolutely Barking Stars, I’m Not Listening is a full-on plunge into lurid melodrama, completely over the top and completely irresistible, with a wonky and tinny opening that sounds like something from an old silent movie soundtrack, and a thunderous chorus. Its wall of guitars yet again brings Queen to mind, and praise also has to be heaped on McKee, Bruce Brody and Martin Tillman for a string arrangement that brings us a climax that sounds like the unholy offspring of Psycho and Jaws. You can practically see our protagonist lurking, knife in hand, behind some oak door, just waiting for the time of vengeance.

The truth is I could listen to this song all day long. Given its subject matter and mood, I’m not quite sure what that says about me but, like I’m Not Listening’s “heroine”, I defy anyone to tell me I’m wrong.

In the nicest possible way, of course.

Everybody

2010-08-17T17:59:00.000+01:00

If one of the complaints about Life is Sweet is its lack of catchy tunes when compared to previous McKee efforts, the album’s fifth track Everybody at least goes some way to answering that grouse as McKee gives us the closest thing to out-and-out pop the album provides, an up-tempo track whose subject matter I couldn’t even guess at. Regardless of such lyrical obscurity, it zooms along with a musically straight and direct style while its refrain of, “Maybe tomorrow,” brings to mind the Pretenders’ Talk of the Town without ever imitating it.

Yet more cack-handed axe work from McKee and some highly appealing multi-part vocals carry us along, brisk and remorseless as a river, until we reach an ending that sounds like something the Beatles would’ve offered had they been making music in the mid-1990s. It’s easy to think of Life is Sweet as very much an album of its time, following in the wake of such singers as Alanis Morissette but, right here, the song’s (and presumably Maria’s) 1960s’ influences are impossible to ignore.

To my knowledge Everybody was never released as a single - baffling, as it’s easily the most radio friendly track on the disk.

I suppose it shows that Geffen’s men-in-suits really didn’t have a clue what they had on their hands with this album or what to do with it, and the failure to release Everybody as a single leaves you in no doubt that, when it came to the commercial failure of Life is Sweet, the fault was entirely theirs and the radio stations’ and not Maria’s.

Smarter

2010-08-16T13:47:00.000+01:00

As a lyricist Maria McKee’s always had a touch of cynical but humane wit about her and that shows through no more strongly on Life is Sweet than on track six - Smarter - as she gives us the tale of a girl who, when confronted by a string of truly remarkable events, including an encounter with Jesus, remains resolutely unimpressed, perhaps echoing the Peggy Lee song Is That All There Is?

As well as injecting a touch of dry humour into Life is Sweet, Smarter also heralds a noticeable shift in the album’s values as, in its second half, it moves away from the vigorous melodrama of its first few tracks and into a more introverted, almost languid sound, a sound the album will never really shake off from this point on. In this way, Life is Sweet may perhaps be seen as an album of two halves, albeit the second of those halves being slightly longer than the first.

Of all the tracks on the album, Smarter shows the influence of early 90s’ grunge music more than any other and, as such, is slightly atypical. But it’s a nice track - if one that takes a bit more getting used to than the previous offerings on the album - and which sets up the disk’s second half perfectly.

What Else You Wanna Know

2010-08-15T10:07:00.000+01:00

Life is Sweet enters its quietest phase yet as we get the tale of what may or may not be a suicide pact. To be honest, I’ve long ago given up trying to work out what most of the songs on Life is Sweet are about but, for the most part, that doesn’t matter. Ambiguity may add intrigue and I get the feeling, with What Else You Wanna Know, that we’re probably better off not knowing what it’s about, as the chorus arguably lays the album’s guignol elements on far too heavily.

I actually don’t have that much to say about What Else You Wanna Know, although, thanks to its haunting and dream-like verses, it’s one of my favourite tracks.

Having said that, the chorus isn’t quite as inspired as those verses, and Susan Otten’s (I assume they’re hers) backing vocals are somewhat lacklustre. I assume that lack of vitality’s deliberate, or presumably Maria would have done them herself but that’s not to say it’s an idea that actually works.

I’m Awake

2010-08-14T15:16:00.000+01:00

With I’m Awake, Life is Sweet enters ever deeper nooks and crannies of introversion and intimacy as we reach what for me is its finest song. Haunted and haunting, I’m Awake has a stately grace, elegance and beauty - but that doesn’t mean it lacks the serrated edge of paranoia. This is Life is Sweet after all. Even here there has to be conflict, both inner and outer.

Standout moment of I’m Awake has to be McKee’s guitar solo. Coming straight after the line, “I live to die again in your arms,” it genuinely captures the feel of approaching death. As you listen you can practically see the Grim Reaper making his way across the room towards you. It’s by far McKee’s best solo on the album and, giving way as it does, to ice cold strings, it’s enough to send a shiver down the hardiest of spines.

After the solo, the song effectively drifts away, as though lost in some dark reverie, its coda repeatedly switching between Major and Minor as though not sure whether to bask in the warmth and hope of the rising sun or to dwell on the events of the night before.

It’s a remarkable piece of music, spiritually and technically as good a song as McKee’s ever written. Praise too should go to David Nolte and Ric Kavin for their bass and drum work. Their playing’s very much of its time but quality enables art to transcend its time and so the track sounds as fresh now as it ever did upon release.

Human

2010-08-13T17:20:00.000+01:00

If there’s one song on the album that Life is Sweet could live without, it’s track nine - Human - which, it should be acknowledged, comes dangerously close to being a dirge. Lyrically, Human also has more than a hint of sixth-form poetry about it. 1996 sees McKee at the height of her powers, and so it’s not an out-and-out bad song but nor is it anywhere near as good as the rest of Life is Sweet and could probably have benefited from a middle eight to break up its intense monotony.

Main interest comes from McKee’s guitar, which is obsessive, and the arrival of the now obligatory strings at the end to try and liven it up. But the truth is Human is a song that comes and goes without ever feeling like it’s been anywhere in between. And coming, as it does, amid a quartet of low-key songs, its placing on the album isn’t as wise as it could be. The far livelier Absolutely Barking Stars would’ve worked much better at this point in the proceedings.

Still, whatever its relative failings, it’s not enough to quite derail the album.

But it does its best.

Carried

2010-08-12T13:15:00.000+01:00

Life is Sweet’s tenth offering suffers from its placement. After the less than nimble Human, the album’s crying out for an injection of pace. Instead we get the distinctly quiet and inward looking Carried. On top of that, Carried's references to multiple personality disorder, self harm and religious obsession are already over-familiar from previous tracks, making it feel like McKee’s starting to repeat herself.

That’s a shame because it’s a genuinely good song, with a fine chorus and pleasing guitar, merely a victim of its circumstances. It also leads nicely into Life is Sweet’s final song and title track. Although I don’t particularly mind Human, I do increasingly feel the best thing to do is to simply skip it and go straight from I’m Awake to Carried so that Carried might be better appreciated in its own right.

But now Carried is done, and that leads us into the track the whole shooting match is named after. Can the title song of Life is Sweet possibly justify being granted such an honour?

Life is Sweet/Afterlife

2010-08-11T17:15:00.000+01:00

Life is Sweet isn’t the best song on the album it gives its name to. For me, that’s between Absolutely Barking Stars and I’m Awake but it is one of its best songs and, in retrospect its greatest achievement; like A Day in the Life, standing outside the album while pulling together its strands to neatly tie off what it makes into a unified whole.

Life is Sweet is one of only two songs on the album to be sung by a character who isn’t the subject of that song. The other being Smarter. This means that, while other tracks can wallow in the strangeness and uneasiness of their protagonists, Life is Sweet can stand beyond them and comment as a sympathetic but partially detached observer. Needless to say, the song ends with one of the great climaxes in the history of popular music as the strings kick in and seem to take off, flying like Peter Pan above the rooftops. What better way to view the follies and turmoils of humanity whilst also rising above them?

Life is Sweet, the album, was a one-off, quite unlike anything else McKee’s ever recorded. In some ways, the fact it was never replicated is disappointing, but the truth is it had no choice. Already, before the album had even ended, its themes and its mood were starting to threaten to outstay their welcome and wouldn’t have stood up to another album in the same vein.

But, whatever anyone says, it’s Maria McKee’s greatest work and so, while this particular strand of McKee’s career may have burned just briefly, the music it spawned has shone for much longer and is showing no signs of fading. It means that, in the end, all you can say is this one is for the girl who told us she wasn’t listening but listened well enough to give us one of the finest albums of its decade.