Search - Charlotte Hatherley :: Grey Will Fade

A weirdly wonderful, melodic but bizarre alt-pop record.

D. Mok | Los Angeles, CA | 11/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine if The Go-Go's, Melissa Auf der Maur, Throwing Muses, Weeping Tile and Crowsdell-era Shannon Wright all contributed DNA to produce a musical progeny, and you'd have some sense of what Charlotte Hatherley's solo album is like. She is bound to surprise more than a few fans of Ash, for while Ash's music is also very well written, catchy and appealing, it's nowhere near the level of weirdness of Grey Will Fade.



The one steady element is Hatherley's girlish voice, a likeable if unspectacular punk-pop voice perfectly suited to Ramones-style songs. If Hatherley has a limited voice, though, her technique is superb, with an especially appealing vibrato and a real sense of how to inhabit the lead vocal. The arrangements and songwriting, however, are all over the map. When I'd first put on leadoff track "Kim Wilde", I got lost in the labyrinthine time changes and modulations...and then found myself humming what I could remember of the tune for the next two weeks. A madcap pop masterpiece, to be sure, with thick blankets of guitar, a crashing beat and a deliciously cheesy keyboard line. And when was the last time you heard a pop hook with the word "juggernaut" in it? Certain songs are reminiscent of Lush and Sing-Sing in their moody melodicism, such as the seductive "Rescue Me" and the gorgeous wash of "Where I'm Calling From". "Stop"'s bizarre, discordant wall of sound is almost like Melissa Auf der Maur's solo record, and lead single "Summer" is a beautifully harmonized midtempo cooker with a killer stop-start chorus. The closest this album comes to carefree pop styles is the vintage Go-Go's beats of "Paragon" and "Bastardo", and even then, Hatherley's lyrics are far stranger than any of the above. I gotta hand it to her, because she manages to craft some darned catchy lyrics despite the eccentric wordplay.



All the name-dropping just points to how complicated a listen experience this album is. Of all the above, I'd say Crowsdell is the best comparison -- idiosyncratic, freewheeling pop music with ingenious arrangements. The hooks and melodic songwriting make this record accessible, while the peculiar touches keep repeated listens interesting. Grey Will Fade comes strongly recommended -- if you can find it."