Trip-hop’s undisputed Queen and Morcheeba frontwoman Skye returns this Autumn with her third solo record, Back To Now, released through [PIAS] America on October 30th. Production credits for the album, which is accompanied by lead single ‘Featherlight‘, come from the Grammy Award winner Stephen Fitzmaurice (Paloma Faith, Metronomy and Professor Green). In conjuction with the annoucement of the album, Skye shares the video for “Featherlight.”
Back To Now sees Skye on assured form in the follow up to 2009’s Keeping Secrets.The album began life in similar fashion to her two previous releases, in partnership with her longtime collaborator and husband Steve Gordon. However, in contrast to Keeping Secrets and Skye’s solo debut Mind How You Go, guitar and piano were laid to one side and tracks instead evolved from the early barebones of beats and loops. Aware of the potential of the raw material she had written, Skye specifically sought out the production services of Fitzmaurice; ‘I’d worked with Stephen before when he mixed (previous single) ‘Love Show’ and knew he’d be able to take these new songs to the next level’.
Fitzmaurice’s crisp production values couple with Skye’s ethereal voice to impressive effect, across a distinctly nocturnal soundscape. Synths bubble across early album highlights ‘Sign of Life’ and lead single, ‘Featherlight’, both anchored by Skye’s effortless vocals, whilst ‘Every Little Lie’s’ chorus mines a compulsive vocal hook to memorable effect.
However, Back To Now is by no means an exclusively synth propelled album, with strings employed to distinctive effect on ‘Bright Light’ and the possessive plea of ‘Nowhere’. Yet in all cases, it is the character and range of Skye’s vocals which underpins Back To Now. Layered on ‘High Life’, providing a tender counterpoint to the disquieting synths of ‘Dissolve’, and gliding across the percussive loops of ‘Little Bit Lost’, it is an ever arresting focus point.
Tracklisting:
1. Troubled Heart
2. Sign of Life
3. Featherlight
4. Nowhere
5. Little Bit Lost
6. We Fall Down
7. Every Little Lie
8. High Life
9. Dissolve
10. Bright Light
John Sargeant, writing on NeuFutur as Sargeant, is the founder and editor-in-chief of NeuFutur Magazine, where he has covered independent music, PC hardware, consumer tech, and gaming culture since 1998. With over 25 years of continuous digital publishing experience, he has written thousands of hands-on game and record reviews, conducted in-depth hardware field testing, and analyzed digital media monetization trends. His work prioritizes first-hand evaluation and long-term product testing.
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