Stop! --- Sam Brown --- 1988 (A&M)
What do you do when your father is a successful rock star and your mother also sings? Born into a musical family of note, Sam Brown contracted the music bug early in her life and began singing mostly backing vocals on some famous albums by people such as The Small Faces, Spandau Ballet and Sade, later taking the step to record and release her own music. This was her debut album, and sadly in terms of commerciality, though it is a good album the title was prophetic: this hit the charts but none of her later albums did. A protracted legal battle with her label over artiste's rights on her third album led to her forming her own label and releasing "43 minutes" herself. Her big, and only, hit single from this album was the title track, which is a great little song and really showcases her stunning vocal talent.
There's a big swaggering swaying cold rocker to start off, elements of Simple Minds' "Waterfront" in the guitar as "Walking back to me" gets going, and to be honest her voice is good on this but it won't really become apparent how good it is till a little later. It's a goodtime, upbeat song and has some nice backing vocals, with guitar provided by her brother Pete, and Sam herself on piano, then "Your love is all" is a darker little piece with a lovely bass line and some atmospheric keys. Kind of stutters along a little for the verses and has, to me, something of mid-eighties Judie Tzuke in the chorus. Some pretty hard guitar too, though this time it's not Pete Brown who provides it.
That takes us into the title track, her big hit single which you've probably already heard at some point. With a breathy vocal almost Monroe-like, it's a slow, sensuous ballad that finally gives full vent to the weapon that is Sam Brown's voice. Some fantastic orchestral backing gives the whole thing a very forties-style feeling, but even then the strings almost fade away under the power of this unique voice. When she hits the high notes it's truly something to hear. The amount of passion and longing Sam puts into this song makes it worth the price of the album on its own. A word for the orchestra though: it really does add extra punch to the song, as do the soulful backing vocals, but the other real high point of the song is the stupendous organ solo in the middle, courtesy of Bob Andrews. Powerful song, but in a way it overshadows the rest of the album by being so much better than most of what else is on it.
Another point to consider is that we don't just have here a girl singing songs written by someone else. On every track on this album Sam co-writes, except for the one short track she writes herself, so this is all her own music. "It makes me wonder", while also being an perhaps unwitting nod back to Led Zep, is a slowburner with an almost gospel tint that again for me treads heavily in Judie Tzuke territory (whaddya mean, who? Just for that, watch for a feature soon!) and then halfway through like the train in the lyric begins to pick up speed and ramps up the tempo as Sam's voice again scales the heights. The god that is David Gilmour pops up to rack off a suitably stunning solo in "This feeling", which also has a nice accordion opening. One of the other standouts, it has a really nice squarking keyboard --- squarking? It's a word I made up, prefectly cromulent --- passage running through it, almost China Crisis in feel. Another great vocal from Sam on a smouldering little ballad which, while not anywhere as hot as "Stop!" (nothing on this album is) still comes across as one of the better tracks. Well, the mere presence of Gilmour would assure that, but it's more than just that.
Personally, silly as it may seem, I love the forty-five second "Tea", the only song Sam writes on her own. It's quirky, it's different, it's funny and it's clever. And... it's over. "Piece of my luck" then is really jazzy with a slick bassline and some sexy horns (ooer!) and takes everything back to that forties feel, slow, sultry, sexy, moody in the best way possible. "Ball and chain" on the other hand has a slick funky feel to it, almost Art of Noise in places, quite stripped-down (who'd like to see Sam stripped down, eh?)
with a great guitar riff running through it. Crazy little vocal in it that reminds me of M's "Pop muzik" too. "Wrap me up" has a very new-wave synth line in it and indeed Sam sings in a sort of new-wave fashion on it too. Very busy rhythm going on. Great guitar solo too, sort of reminds me (
does everything have to remind you of something, Trollheart? Yeah. Wanna fight about it?) of Dave Stewart's solo in "Sisters are doin' it for themselves", then the other amazing ballad, standout number two by a mile is the superb slowburner "I'll be in love", with a scorching guitar line from the returning Gilmour and ghostly piano, the latter played by herself. A truly stunning and smoking vocal performance from Mrs. Brown's little girl: a musical wet dream and no mistake.
An interesting segue from this to the next track, as the former ends on a sort of heartbeat sound and this then morphs into a shimmering drum roll which brings in a pretty stark opening for "Merry go round", which is characterised by heavy, thumping drums and a sort of swirling strings sound that runs through it. Very different to her other work on the album, and it ends on the upbeat, quite commercial "Sometimes you just don't know", which would have made a good single but wasn't selected. Nice almost progressive rock guitar line with a low-key vocal on the verse then it cuts up on the back of some soul-style drumming and backing vocals. There are three extra tracks on the CD, but as a) two of them are covers and b) the original listening experience I had was on vinyl, and this is then where that album ended, I won't be featuring them, as per my usual rules.
TRACKLISTING
1. Walking back to you
2. Your love is all
3. Stop!
4. It makes me wonder
5. Your love is all
6. Tea
7. Piece of my luck
8. Ball and chain
9. Wrap me up
10. I'll be in love
11. Merry go round
12. Sometimes you just don't know
Although her second album had a few minor hits on it there was no further solo success for Sam Brown, but she was and is highly prized, both as a backing vocalist/duettist and as a songwriter. She continues to collaborate with the cream of rock, providing backing vocals for Pink Floyd on the album "The division bell" and writing most of the late Jon Lord's second solo album . She has also teamed up with the Beautiful South's Dave Rotheray and under the name Homespun has recorded three albums. So she will never starve. It is a pity though that the promise shown on this album was never completely allowed to flower into what it could have been. The death of her mother would have been a turning point, both in her life and in her career, and indeed it was then that she decided to set up her own label, looking to exercise more control over her work.
As a debut this album speaks volumes. It's just a pity that after the initial roar, as it were, the rest sort of faded away in the background, like the slowly-disappearing echoes of a shout now almost inaudible.