TRACK REVIEW: The Anchoress - The Art of Losing

TRACK REVIEW:

The Anchoress

PHOTO CREDIT: Annick Wolfers

The Art of Losing

9.6/10

The track, The Art of Losing, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guEJhDJoUO8

GENRES:

Indie-Rock/Art-Pop

ORIGIN:

Glynneath, Wales

The album, The Art of Losing, is available from 12th March. It can be pre-ordered here:

https://theanchoress.tmstor.es/

LABEL:

Kscope

TRACKLISTING:

Moon Rise (Prelude)

Let It Hurt

The Exchange (ft. James Dean Bradfield)

Show Your Face

The Art of Losing

All Farewells Should Be Sudden

All Shall Be Well

Unravel

Paris

5AM

The Heart Is a Lonesome Hunter

My Confessor

With the Boys

Moon (An End)

PRODUCER:

Catherine Anne Davies

__________

IN this review and next week’s…

PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Charlesworth

I am featuring two incredible British artists who are going to be putting out incredible albums very soon. In the case of next week’s subject, Arlo Parks, she is releasing her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, on Friday (29th). The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) is my subject this week. She is releasing the highly-anticipated album, The Art of Losing, on 12th March. It is an album I cannot wait to check out, as I really love her music! I am going to review the album’s title track soon enough but, before I get there, there are a few things that I want to cover off - so that one can have a better appreciation of The Anchoress/Davies and her music career so far. I want to source from an interview from Get in Her Ears from a few years back. We learn more about the musical tastes of The Anchoress:

“Which other artists or bands inspire you?

I love a lot of “art rock” – Roxy Music, Bowie, Eno, but I’m also a big fan of Nine Inch Nails and Deftones, as well as being reasonably obsessed with the Beatles, Kate Bush, and Prince. Amazing pop music is something I come back to a lot as well: ABBA, The Carpenters and ELO. I’m also still hugely moved by a lot of classical music I grew up dancing to. I think what consistently inspires me though is great songs, whatever genre or style they may fit into. My most recent obsessively listened to albums have been Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, and The Twilight Sad”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Charlesworth

One of my favourite albums from 2016 was The Anchoress’ Confessions of a Romance Novelist. Not only was I struck by the cover – which I shall talk more about later -, but the songwriting was instantly striking and stirring! I knew, listening to that album, that here was a rare and superb talent who was going to go far. I was keen to discover more about the creation and story of Confessions of a Romance Novelist. That brought me to an interview with CLASH from 2016:

“Can you tell us about the ‘narrator’ of the album, the romance novelist. Was writing from a character’s perspective always a conscious decision?

The whole album is set in the 1980s and is based around this fictional failed romance novelist. I wanted to make a concept album for many different reasons and in order to do so I needed to impose this underlying structure, with there being some element of wanting to distance myself slightly from the emotional process, as well as slightly lampooning the whole “confessional singer-songwriter” tag that so many female artists get lumbered with. The idea of the narrator, who ghost writes romance novels and feels that she has failed in her own artistic endeavours, evolved on many levels. In part, it is some kind of not completely water tight metaphor for what it feels like to be a female auteur in the music industry: never entirely in control or credited for your creative labours. On another level I was taking aim at my own tendency to make a coherent narrative out of every failed relationship or bad romance. As people we love to impose our own coherence on these things that are very much plotless - loss, failure, disappointment. I guess on some level we are all ghostwriting our own lives to try and makes sense of them after the fact.

The journey to complete the album has been a gigantic uphill struggle filled with death, delay and injury. With the album now finished is there a sense of just wanting to move onto what’s next, or are you happy to breathe and look back at what it took to finish it?

I didn’t take a breath at all when finishing it. I was straight back in the studio with Bernard Butler before I’d even started the mixing process. In part I think because the process of making the album had been so disjointed and prolonged it hasn’t felt like I needed to break or even could afford to take that breath. I think it’s so important to keep up momentum creatively because you never know when you might just “dry up”. I’m also a workaholic so there isn’t much option for me but to just keep going…”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Charlesworth

I want to jump ahead to now and The Art of Losing. It must be strange preparing an album when you cannot get out and tour it. I feel sympathy for musicians who are restricted when it comes to gigs and putting their music to the people. It also must be a bit strange recording an album! Many artists are used to big studios and working there. That has been curtailed and limited, as many have had to rely on home recording and a more modest approach. I know that The Art of Losing was scheduled to come out las year. In an interview with Music Radar, we discover how far back The Anchoress’ forthcoming album was completed and ready to roll:

“The UK is between lockdowns as we talk to Catherine Anne Davies in the build-up to Christmas, but life is still as far from normal as it can be for a touring musician. Live music is on hold, and so has been the release of The Anchoress’s second album, The Art Of Losing, which was originally slated for a March 2020 release and will now come out in March 2021. The wait is something Davies says she has come to appreciate, and what has happened to the world in the meantime has certainly sharpened the blade of an album dealing with grief in its many forms.

“The album was actually finished in 2019,” Catherine explains, “so I got to sit with it for a lot longer than planned, but that’s had its upsides in terms of my having more time to process a lot of the things I’m talking about on the record”.

I am going to explore aspects of The Anchoress’ music in a bit but, sticking with the new album, and many will be wondering what sort of sounds and themes will be explored. I have put a link at the top of the page so that you can pre-order The Art of Losing. Rough Trade provide us with some helpful information regarding a superb and fascinating album:

“The Art of Losing is the second album from Welsh multi-instrumentalist The Anchoress (aka Catherine Anne Davies), following up on her critically acclaimed debut album, Confessions of A Romance Novelist, which was named amongst the Guardian critics' Albums of the Year, won HMV's Welsh Album of the Year, Best Newcomer at the Prog awards, and a nomination for the Welsh Music Prize.

Written and produced by Davies, the new album features guest performances from James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) and drums from Sterling Campbell (David Bowie, Duran Duran) along with the mixing talents of Dave Eringa (Manics, Wilko Johnson) and grammy-award winner Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Prince, Laurie Anderson).

The Art Of Losing ambitiously navigates the topic of loss in all its forms and was written and recorded during an unfeasibly busy few years as Davies found solace and purpose in a range of projects whilst navigating her griefs. Most recently this came via the release of her collaborative album In Memory of My Feelings with Bernard Butler (on Pete Paphides' label Needle Mythology), duetting with the Manic Street Preachers on Resistance Is Futile, and being personally invited by The Cure's Robert Smith to perform at his Meltdown Festival. She also brought a new generation of ears to legendary Scottish rock band Simple Minds, where she spent much of the last five years appearing on the 'Big Music' (2015) and 'Walk Between Worlds' (2018) albums”.

I am excited to hear the album. It will also be great to hear collaborators like James Dean Bradfield and Sterling Campbell in the mix! The fact that there are such big names on the album shows the affection and respect those artists have for Catherine Anne Davies!

There are a few interesting aspects to the music of The Anchoress that I want to explore. One reason why I loved the cover for here debut, Confessions of a Romance Novelist, is because the photo is similar to one of Kate Bush taken by Gered Mankowitz. That photo, the ‘wooden box’ image, was taken in 1978 and would become the American cover image for Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside. I know Catherine Anne Davies is inspired by Bush and holds albums like Never for Ever in high esteem. Not to compare too directly, but there are a few other aspects and similarities that caught my eye. Certainly, when it comes to the music of The Anchoress, there is a sense of self-control that is evident (wanting to produce and write her own music). Rather than have too many people in the studio and too many cooks in the kitchen, here is an artist who very much has her own direction – there are no need for a load of producers and songwriters to help mould her music. We learn more about this in the Music Radar interview:

““I think that's what's so wonderful about having complete control,” Catherine expounds, “as pretentious as it may sound, it's my vision alone. You don’t have to compromise what you're trying to do, you know, so you’re just articulating something really pure. And it is a sum of all of my influences and interests, but I really strived very hard to make the album a coherent body of work. I am still very interested in the album, as a collection of songs, articulating something. It’s what interests me, I’m terribly old fashioned”.

“I do have collaborators on the album, though, including Sterling Campbell, David Bowie’s drummer, who contributed remotely from New York, and James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers, who I was very lucky to have playing guitar on one track [Show Your Face] and also singing a duet [The Exchange]. So where I needed to bring others in I was able to, but partly through needs-must I became a jack of all trades on this.

“I also bought some more vintage synths, quite a few more guitars, some mic preamps found their way into my checkout basket… but that was me building my studio, and thank goodness I did that”.

Two other Kate Bush-like sides to The Anchoress’ music is the attraction and exploration of literature and cinema. Bush was especially compelled by these mediums. Many of her songs took inspiration from various books, films and T.V. shows – from Wuthering Heights, to Hammer Horror, to Get Out of My House, to The Infant Kiss, right through to Cloudbusting (and beyond), there was a wide range of influences (I have written a few features regarding Bush and the songs that were inspired by literature and the screen). Going back to the Music Radar interview, and we learn more about how The Anchoress’ forthcoming album is guided or enforced by the cinematic:

“Talk of sonic dreamscapes leads our discussion in the direction of an essay Davies once wrote for the NME about the films of David Lynch and their true influence on music; in it she talked about Lynch’s ability to bleed dreams into reality, and it is something Davies does musically throughout The Art Of Losing. The track Paris is a particular standout.

“There are all kinds of ways of borrowing from film and cinematic structures, but also techniques, you know, sonic collages and things like that,” she explains. “Part dreamscape, I think is how I described Paris, part dreamscape and part commentary. I'm interested in other people's voices, and bringing those together to comment upon my own internal monologue in some way.

“It was very difficult for me to consciously think of a way, not to record the sound of trauma, but to incorporate that into the songs and the production of the record. Because that is what I was experiencing in my life at the time and was hanging over me, ever present, there was no way I could have escaped that [Davies has written publicly about miscarriage and childloss]. I think I would have had to have taken a long time out if that wasn't going to creep through”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jodie Cartman

I can see why songwriters are influenced by literature and films. Obviously, we all consume films and books in some form - so it is inevitable that this would seep into our minds and impact us in some way. For songwriters who are always looking around for that spark of inspiration, the vividness of literature and film can prove hugely powerful! Right from the start, it seems that literature has been especially instrumental for The Anchoress’ Catherine Anne Davies. Her love of literature was explored in the previously-sourced interview from Get in Her Ears:

“Is literature and poetry a passion you keep separate from your role as a musician, or do you allow the two passions to combine?

I’m sure that studying poetry for such a long time has informed my use of metre and rhyme when I’m writing songs. I tend to always collect quotes and snippets from books or films when I’m making an album too as I find that helps me focus and coalesce the themes and preoccupations. When I come to think of it, making a record isn’t all that dissimilar from writing a PhD – lots of self-imposed isolation, research and reading!”.

Just to tie into that and, when she spoke with CLASH (another interview I have already brought in), literature was once more at the fore:

“Album and artists often switch fans onto good literature. You’ve gone so far to include a reading list with the album, are you trying to start a trend?

I feel like the Manics (Street Preachers) may have already beaten me to that... The idea of books and writing was so deeply entwined with the making of the album - right down to the fact that my research funding for my literature PhD paid for me to stay living in London and make the record - that it seemed obvious that the romance novelist would include her own bibliography. Not every title in there is entirely serious of course… I still haven't actually been able to make it through a Mills & Boon...”

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Warring Bush

There are a few other points that I want to tick off before getting to the song I am reviewing. Not only will we hear some great collaborators on the new album from The Anchoress but, as Catherine Anne Davies, she worked alongside the incredible Bernard Butler (Suede). They released an album, In Memory of My Feelings, last year. Davies spoke with Music Radar about that album:

“Last year saw the release of Catherine’s collaboration with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler…

“Obviously he's a phenomenal guitar player and he has a very identifiable style. You know, I think he and James are the two big talents of their generation who have that thing that when they play, they sound exactly like them. But for me, I would say I’m actually a big admirer of his production and his arrangement. His enormous talent as a producer is somewhat unsung, he’s incredibly skilled.

“By its very nature The Memory Of My Feelings is such a different record from an Anchoress record, because when you come in together and it’s two people that have got different skill sets, even if they massively overlap, you've got to make space for each other. So that necessitated me kind of giving up a lot of control that I would normally have to have”.

Just before I get down to reviewing, it is important that we learn more about the inspirations behind The Art of Losing (album). When she spoke with NME, we discovered more regarding the sound of the album:

“What were your touchstones for the record?

““The artists I love who have tackled and broached the darker side of life, sonically, were people like Scott Walker with his chaotic maelstrom, or the last David Bowie record [‘Blackstar‘]. The ‘Holy Bible’ by the Manics too. A lot of people think of that as a really dark and challenging listen, but for me, it was always a record that I would return to as something which could help let out any difficult things I was going through. There’s actually something really joyous about listening to dark records. The challenge, in taking on a subject that naturally lends itself to downtempo, introspective ballads, was forcing myself to do something much more experimental, musically”.

I love the title track of The Art of Losing, so I was very keen and excited to dissect it. Sticking with that NME interview, and we get some insight into a phenomenal song:

“Hello Catherine. How did this song come to be the title track?

Catherine Anne Davies: “I don’t think I consciously chose it. I guess it made itself known as the dominant theme of the album over the period of time in which it was written and recorded. I’ve always had that title in my head and it comes from an Elizabeth Bishop poem. ‘The art of losing’ is the first line of her poem ‘One Art’, which is about the idea that you can practice getting better at loss. It’s an ironic take on that because, obviously, that’s not possible. The song itself is really an interrogation of what we learn when we lose.”

The questions in the song – ‘Was there a purpose to losing my mind? What did you learn when life was unkind?’ – seem to bind the album thematically…

“I started with this idea, that kind of Nietzschean sentiment of ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. By the time I finished writing this song, I had reached a place where I actually really rejected that notion, that there was something positive to take out of grief. It was actually the final song that I wrote, the night before I went into The Kinks’ Ray Davies’ Konk Studios to record. I think it was really about the coalescing of all of the things that had happened to me in the preceding years”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Charlesworth

The Art of Losing is an incredible track that is given a spacey and trippy touch by the CB6 synthesiser. In the video, we see newspaper pages that detail what the song is about and how it fits onto the album. As we learn, The Art of Losing concerns “…a triptych of abusive and traumatic situations that sadly seem all too universal to the experience of women: domestic abuse, sexual assault and the loss of a child”. There is a propulsion and huge heartbeat that gives the song a very striking and urgent quality. That said, there is a degree of warmth that provides a nice balance. As we also learn from the video text, the title track was the first one recorded for the album (correct me if I am wrong). With Davies playing nearly everything on the track and having this very clear musical vision, one cannot help but be immersed in a song that acts as the centrepiece of a remarkable album. The vintage musical sounds and incredible production gets right under the skin; The Art of Losing is a song that you will play again and again – not just because of those qualities, but because it is a song that tackles big themes and has a very powerful message. Our heroine explains how she has a lot to learn about the art of losing. Whether, in the first lines, she is referring to her own experiences of loss or how it has affected other women in her life, I am not so sure. I do love how the synthesiser sound and the racing percussion gives the song so much life and texture. We hear lines about drinking and marks being left. It does seem like there is an element of destruction and pain that comes to the surface. The heroine asks, “So what did you learn when life was unkind?”, and whether there was some purpose to her losing her mind. I like how the video is a series of newspaper pages with interviews from Davies and quotes; lines about the song and lyrics. It gives the impression of some sort of tabloid story, or a news report about someone experiencing tragedy.

PHOTO CREDIT: Roberto Foddai

The song grows bigger and more layered as it progresses; both enforcing the potency and importance of what is being said, it also ensures that the listener is gripped and invested. In The Anchoress, we have an artist who has no weaknesses when it comes to her talent - but, here, she is investigating, perhaps, personal weakn4ess or doubts. In terms of the lyrics, music, performance and production, everything is incredible and so memorable! The Art of Losing is a quite a busy song musically speaking, which might represent the myriad emotions and thoughts that are racing through the heroine’s mind! The lyrics become more harrowing and affection as we near the mid-way point. I am not sure whether there was a specific subject in mind – or whether it relates to traumatised and abused women in general –, but the question of how much more can she takes comes up. How many more rapes (and one more child)!? It is a shocking passage of the song that really makes you stand still and think! The Anchoress asks whether one repeats or repairs when faced with something harrowing and life-altering. When life was bleak and she/women had to face these situations, then how do they respond? It can be incredibly difficult talking about abuse. Many women will feel ill at ease opening up about such things. The song is about what we gain and loss from difficult situations and how, if you bury grief and loss or try to rationalise it, then that can have a destructive and devastating impact. Maybe a rationale is that the pain and trauma will subside with time, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

This attitude and approach can cause more damage than good so, on The Art of Losing, I think The Anchoress is urging more conversation and an openness to talk about abuse (and to tackle it). The vocal is especially emotional and affecting. It carries so much weight and conviction that one will revisit the song because of that impact. I guess there is also an element of losing a relationship and opportunity. The Art of Losing is about several types of loss, so there is this examination of a love being lost too. Whereas Davies recorded an album with Bernard Butler and there was this collaborative spirit, The Art of Losing is an album (and track) that seems much more personal - one that required a different approach. Catherine Anne Davies has experienced loss and trauma in her life (including the death of her dad), and I am not sure how close to the mark I am regarding the lyrics and what she is referring to I think The Art of Losing is a very moving song that many people can relate to. It is heartbreaking to think of what Davies has experienced but, through this song, she is asking herself questions and bringing to the surface some very challenging experiences and losses. It is a stunning song from an album where the nature and subject of loss and dealing with it will be explored in more depth.

PHOTO CREDIT: Isabella Charlesworth

I am going to wrap up soon, but I want to nod back to a subject/area that I teased. On The Art of Losing, we will hear James Dean Bradfield on the track, The Exchange. I am a huge fan of the Manic Street Preachers, and I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it would be to work alongside him! I have heard many interviews from Bradfield, and he comes across as really cool, friendly and personable. In the NME interview I sourced from earlier, Catherine Anne Davies was asked about working with the Manics legend;

“Did working with familiar collaborators like James Dean Bradfield help when dealing with the difficult themes?

“I was still terrified to ask him! I still thought he would say no because I still hold them in such high regard and at arm’s length to a certain extent because I don’t want to spoil that sense that I have of them as still being the idols on my teenage bedroom wall. But of course, it was lovely to know that there were people in the industry that cared about what I was going through and at a time when I felt as if nobody did. I wanted to make it as good as possible for him to sing on as well. There’s nothing like that to egg you on in terms of doing your best work when you know that you’ve got a voice like James Dean Bradfield’s that’s going to be appearing on it”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vince Barker

Looking ahead, and I think there is going to be a demand to see The Anchoress on the road. She has a growing and loyal fanbase. It must be tough for Davies to be stuck at home and not able to perform on the stage. That said, there is something very affecting and emotional about the songs on The Art of Losing. Maybe there needs to be some preparation time when it comes to translating these songs for the stage. Davies was asked about gigs when she spoke with NME:

“How do you feel about the thought of performing these very personal songs live?

“I needed some time initially to just be kind to myself, to go through some trauma therapy, to just be sensible after what I had gone through. So, there had been a planned delay already. The pandemic then placed a huge extension into the timeline that just meant I had much more time to go to therapy which helped enormously. Not only to think about how I can perform it, but also how I can talk about the record. I remember listening back to the first master. I was just weeping, sobbing uncontrollably – it was just not something that was comfortable for me to listen to then: I wasn’t ready”.

I shall leave things there. Make sure you get The Art of Losing when it comes out on 12th March. It is an album that I very keen to listen to, as I am a fan of The Anchoress – and I wonder whether it is a big departure from her 2016 debut. Judging by the songs that have already been released from The Art of Losing (including Show Your Face), it is going to be one of 2021’s very best releases! Catherine Anne Davies is a remarkable artist and writer and, in The Anchoress, we are lucky enough to have…