Album Review: Carol Hodge - "Savage Purge"

 

Carol Hodge is in possession of an impressive musical CV. As well as being keyboard player for Ryan Hamilton & The Harlequin Ghosts and Steve Ignorant from Crass' band, she's also worked with people as varied as Ginger Wildheart and the Membranes.

Savage Purge is Carol's second album following on from 2018's Hold On To That Flame. Similar to its predecessor, it definitely owes a nod to Tori Amos in its sound with the downbeat piano-led laments of Stop Worrying Baby and the gentle Waving Not Drowning definitely hitting the mark musically. The defiant I Still Love Me and the angular Magic Bullet see her upping the tempo to good effect though and show that she isn't afraid to vary her sound up a bit where necessary as evidenced by the ultra-stark domestic violence lament In Case Of Emergency.

Send Me Someone and Semi-Colon are similarly stripped down and brutally honest and are good testament to Hodge's ability as a songwriter before the epic five-minute Virtue Signals which takes a well-deserved lyrical sledgehammer to the scumbags currently running this country, the new wave-inspired anger of Stopped Believing In You and the heartfelt ode to aging Let Gravity Win bring things to a close and round this off in fine style.

Savage Purge is one of the better albums of this year so far, by turns thoughtful, considerate, sorrowful and righteously angry and it's a fine display of Hodge's songwriting and musical ability. A soundtrack for these dark times we live in, if you need something to act as a comforting arm round your shoulder then you could do a lot worse than this. You can download or stream it from Carol's Bandcamp page and I really recommend that you do so.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

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