DVDfever.co.uk - Joker’s Daughter: The Last Laugh CD reviewDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
Gorgeous. Beguiling. Sweet. Quirky. Ethereal . Oh, and stunning.
This is the first collaboration between desk-wizard Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse and multi-instrumentalist Greek-Cypriot-Londoner Helena Costas.
Both have been in touch since their early days (Costas sending several home recordings) hoping he’d pick up on them. And now he has finally come up trumps on what is a sonically beautiful album. For years, it would seem, Costas knew she had some worthy material for the recording studio. There was only one man worth waiting for to put it all together.
Much of it is dreamy, with lush production values synonymous with Danger Mouse. OK, so he’s at the production helm, but it’s Costas’ album in reality, though he has probably brought much of his Gnarls Barkley Midas touch to it, but in a totally different way. No dance beats from his GB or Gorillaz days. This is clever stuff.
Chances are he’s never had to handle music like this before, and if he hasn’t, then credit’s due because he’s brought out something really special over the 14 songs.
I think it would be true to say he’s left much of the songwriting ‘craft’ to Costas which draws on 60s stylings brought into 21st century by delicate and subtle touches found initially on the whacky sounding Jessie The Goat, sung in Cypriot Greek and there again on the ghostly vocal production on the tingling acoustic ballad Go Walking, with the mater-stroke coming by way of fluffy strings by regular Burton collaborator Daniele Luppi who gives the benefit of her talent throughout this collection.
The strolling jazz-lite ballad JD Folk Blues is the first song with a memorable hook with distinct radio-play qualities featuring snippets of xylophone, though slap-bang-in-the-middle Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes (yes, really) is probably the killer track that’s going to propel Last Laugh’s commercial success.
Pushing the boundaries even further, Jelly Belly belongs to more to Lily Allen’s reggae-lite repertoire than any other comparison right now, and Nothing Is Ever What It Seems would fit perfectly on Led Zeppelin 4’s Californian folk leanings like The Battle Of Evermore or Going To California. The acoustic guitar, strings and Costas’s vocals make this the album’s star track.
Closer, Yellow Teapot has yet another 60s throw-back feel, around the time of say Sgt.Peppers, sealing a fabulous debut.
Question is? Could she do it without DM? If think so.
1. Worm’s Head
2. Jessie The Goat
3. Go Walking
4. Lucid
5. JD Folk Blues
6. The Last Laugh
7. Under The Influence Of Jaffa Cakes
8. Jelly Belly
9. Cake And July
10. Chasing Ticking Crocodile
11. Nothing Is Ever What It Seems
12. The Running Goblin
13. The Bull Bites Back
14. Yellow Teapot
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.