Coco Reilly is Lenore Betteridge vs Marian Call vs Dick Dale vs Plastic Barricades with a contemporary wall-of-sound treatment that would have Phil Spector wanting to make a come-back. Warm, summery, dreamy, and laid-back to the point of coming around the other side. Define You was my first experience of Coco’s work, a George Harrison driven Beatlesesque soundscape in a third-millennium setting (here’s the video). Suited followed closely after, slower paced but no less summery and even more relaxed!The Truth Will Always Find A Way (here’s the video) midway between the two and, as it turns out, the third of three preludes (tracks 4, 2, and 1) to her self-titled debut album which is an early Christmas present to an undeserving world.
The record went through several iterations before being released in this final take. It features Jerry Bernhardt on guitars, keys, and other ideas and contributions), Dom Billet (drums), Ian Ferguson (more guitars), Erin Rae (extra vocals), Will Brown (more keys) and was engineered in Nashville late in 2017 by Jeremy Ferguson (Cage The Elephant) at Battle Tapes studio. The delay was due to unrealised label enthusiasm which, thankfully, was erased by the good folk at Golden Wheel, and we’re all glad they have!
The record explores all these featured soundscapes and then some. From the acousticky-bassy My My in a George Harrison/Paul McCartney way with some John Lennon chord-slides and a heavily-George-influenced solo, to the chill of Mirror that features Erin Rae in a easy-going duet with some Georgesque licks, and the dreamy seascape Coral which took me to the Great Barrier Reef on a humid summer afternoon, to the Pearly Gatecrashersof Light and thecountry summer sunset of Be True, this is a truly relaxing record. Play it again, there will surely be aspects of Coco’s sonic vision that you missed the first time, but it’s worthy of more than just one play-through.
But be careful, the mood of this record is infectious- do not operate heavy machinery under the influence of Coco Reilly, the album or the artist!