Becca Maule’s Teenage Things

I mean, yeah, press releases can be as handy as sitting next to Einstein in a physics test, but reviewing music isn’t an exact science, and while they speed up the process it’s tempting to allow them to spoon-feed you. Sometimes it’s a pleasant surprise to go in blind, as it was with Teenage Things, the debut EP from Salisbury’s young singer-songwriter Becca Maule, due out this Saturday, the 15th July…..

I don’t know why, perhaps taken in by earlier images of Becca sporting a pink bob, and by her supporting Carsick, but as I’ve not had the opportunity to catch her performing I dove in with a preconception this was going to be an all-out riot grrrl explosive thrash of punker style emotional outpouring with little to credit her with other than, well, that was loud!

What I hadn’t taken into account was it was produced at Haxton’s Tunnel Rat Studios with backing by Jolyon Dixon, the studio’s wizard and one half of duo Illingworth, and as a result it’s a dreamy soundscape over acoustic goodness, as is the style Illingworth also purveys. But if the drifting musical ambience has something Pink Floyd-come-melancholic indie, like The Verve or Radiohead, about it, Becca’s voguish and relaxed vocals breath the freshness and vigour of youth into this, and it flows sublimely.

Opening tune Mother Nature is an obloquy commentary on the political ignorance of environmental concerns, and as such while Becca’s self-penned vilification drifts causally alongside the sound, this observation gives in to a spiralling angle of fury; a definite slice of the punk I was expecting slowly builds throughout the tune. This, I’d argue, is astute and profoundly crafted songwriting for someone twice Becca’s age; she’s eighteen and just completed an extended diploma in music performance & production at Wiltshire College.

Teenage Things is no whim project for Becca, the single was released shortly after she performed the title track two years ago, with another Poison Roses, to win a Tunnel Rat’s talent competition, telling the Salisbury Journal at the time, “winning the studio time is golden for me – as a student I don’t have much money and therefore booking studio time is really hard; winning the time means I can professionally record all the ideas in my head instead of trying to do it at home on my not-so-good laptop.”

Let’s just say, that paid off! Vocally I was immediately taken to imagining if Kirsty MacColl came after Lily Allen, she might sound a little something like this. Though not the rap of Kate Nash, her causal inflection brews hints of that voluble style, it’s refined singing still, and I mean this as a high compliment. Though there’s no mention of Kirsty MacColl, Becca replied, “I love Lily Allen, so defo a compliment,” after I put this to her. Am I showing my age now?!

This slightly more upbeat title track follows in this five track EP, and as the name suggests, the subject is teenage anxiety, and the curse of misunderstanding elders. It’s a woeful mard rather than Anthony Burgess fashioned vexation, over a steady beat. If antidepressants like Fluoxetine are insinuated it’s subtle but poignant nonetheless. From here you accept, Becca has more than a few things to say, and she does so with zest and expression. While her peers will identify with this song, parents should take heed too, and consider they’ve forgotten what it was like to be a teenager. This is a double edged sword.

With a conceptual running theme evolving, Little Girl continues on the subject of confusion over coming of age; this drifts so nicely, it is the song Madonna should’ve replaced Papa Don’t Preach with! Now, if Becca has got you onboard and you’re now contemplating how marvellously plotted this is, she throws Affliction of Melancholy Lies into the pot, and peps up the emotive intelligent songwriting another notch or twelve. This moves onto the next stage, relationships and their breakdowns, and is simply gorgeously ruminative.

And though I don’t want this to end, Creatures has the most beguiling singalong chorus, folding in dark indie connotations, and I’m undecided if the safety of wild animals topic is metaphorical, or not, but it is a gratifying cumulation to a sublimely played EP which you really need to delve into wholeheartedly, rather than simply listen to, and that is a rare gem these days.

I’m so much more than pleasantly surprised, I’m in awe; use any part of this as a press release if you wish, Becca, but perhaps your astute words and the beautiful way you have presented them speak volumes for themselves, and as I said at the beginning, the wow-factor is often a dish best left as a revelation!

I’ll pop Becca’s Link-Tree HERE so you can check in on them on Saturday 15th and stream the EP, and will update this review too with links to it.