Blood Red Shoes frontwoman Laura-Mary Carter has always been a wonderful musician, and her new solo project is equally fascinating, but this time, her post- grunge shredding has been replaced by a country noir mini-album. Town Called Nothing invokes dusty, ominous Westerns, the eerie moment before the showdown.
It starts off deceptively pretty, with fine guitar picking from Carter on the easy- breezy (if lyrically melancholic) Blue’s Not My Colour, but ends in a savage, psychedelic place.It all feels like a future classic, the songwriting is that assured.
Produced at RAK Studios by Ed Harcourt, who plays piano and bass, the live, immediate recording process complements Carter’s exquisite guitar playing and yearning vocals. Also, the two are also joined by Eagles Of Death Metal/ The Bronx member Jorma Vik, who brings thunder and menace to final track Ceremony.
Carter travelled around Arizona, and the sense of rickety transport and old buildings is infused in every song. As Carter herself said,” It’s about desolation and abandonment, really. And that fear of being left to go derelict, just like these old towns”.
The ghosts of old Americana lurk everywhere in this sublime record. Dive in to any track here, and it feels like a wander through the desert, looking for a watering hole and a stranger’s arms.
It’s not exactly Marlborough country though: more sad, lost and beaten- down. Think Jane and Travis talking in the peep show in Paris, Texas and you’re halfway there. A gorgeous, evocative album for darker nights. Carter has earned her spurs.
Out on Dec 3rd.Preorder here:
Hit The North 