Think Like A Key 2024
Studio 3
Down the hallowed halls: Anglo-American duo haunt Abbey Road to channel their fabulousness.
Number “3” holds a lot of magic for a lot of people, so when Stephen Butler and Edward Rogers decided to record their third album the desire to magnify the potential mojo led the friends to St John’s Wood in London, whose address, 3 Abbey Road, is very much familiar to most of music aficionados, and once in there, to Studio Three, the least celebrated facility that’s smaller than other rooms and, thus, must be perfect for a two-person operation. The dozen pieces they emerged with should remind many a listener of the past masters’ opuses, of short yet to-the-point platters which stood the test of time not because of stylistic tethering to period and place but thanks to arresting tunes and immaculate delivery – vocal and instrumental.
And this is what the pair offer in spades here, from infectious, harmonica-spiced, rhythm-and-blues opener “Soho Fantasy” opener onwards, as Rogers and Butler – R’n’B, geddit? – pass top lines to and fro, over solid backbeat and tasty twang, and make their voices converge for refrains. Due to such an approach, “Agree To Disagree” and “Sixpence For The Sun” switch the mood between picturesque melancholy and child-like optimism, while the pulsing “Poor Little Rich Girl” and effervescent “Jigsaw Puzzle” seem to focus on dynamic jangle and hark back to sweet innocence of the ’60s. Still, if the socially conscious “Poverty Line” comes across as an immensely soulful number where guitars sting and lyrics bite, the insistent “Burned By The Sun” and “Scarlett Letter” reach for patchouli-scented, slightly sinister psychedelia, and “Farewells” unfolds gauzy balladry in front of the audience’s mind eye. And yet, counterbalancing the hymnal “Music’s Perfect Rhyme” which embraces spiritual resonance in its strings-drenched ambience, “Teddy Boys” rocks with enviable swagger, and the handclaps-propelled and piano-rippled “Oh To Be A Fool Again” adds to joie de vivre that “Studio 3” is filled with.
A candy of an album, it’s bound to latch onto timelessness too.
*****
