Iโve listened to Fayโs second album three times โ one of those against my will while I was thumbing through the cheapie racks at Real Groovy โ and I canโt get the damn thing out of my head. No, not just one song: invariably, I wake up in the morning with one of several tracks circuitously eroding my mental synapses. As annoyingly memorable jingles go, however, these are better than most.
As one of New Zealandโs most unforgiving critics (so Iโm told) Iโm supposed to relentlessly take the piss out of this second album by the daughter of Michael Fay. That makes her a rich bitch, Iโm told, meaning sheโs a worthy target of any sniping. Pass.
It annoys me that Annabel Fay and this album has been dragged into arguments about the legitimacy of NZ On Air funding for someone who clearly has access to a fortune. Itโs possibly true that funding criteria should exclude those, like Fay, who donโt need a hundred grand of taxpayer money, but that issue has obscured any realistic discussion of her music, and resulted in personal slurs and insinuations that, if I was her, would piss me off.
So before we get into reviewing the actual album, hereโs my take on the issues at hand. The rich traditionally get where they are by exploiting any opportunities they can see to make a buck. By definition, the rich are opportunistic. At the very worst, all that Fay has done here is to exploit a loophole that allowed her to get funding when she didnโt need it. This is the kind of opportunism that makes people wealthy, and keeps them wealthy, but itโs not criminal, and to a degree, itโs simply human nature. If thereโs any fault here, itโs that of a system that is so easy to exploit in the first place.
Regardless of oneโs stance on the issues, they shouldnโt pollute assessment of the music, or the album. The funding issues and Fayโs wealth must be clearly and definitively separated from any genuine critical assessment of the work.
So, then: is Show Me The Right Way any good? Short answer: itโs much better than the Simon Sweatpants says it is, and as a pop album, itโs better than average. But no, itโs not a great album. [Sorry Simon, youโre welcome to call me Steelopads, or more derisive nicknames].
Fay admits that this album was in the bag two years ago, which is a long time in the currency of chart music. It doesnโt sound old-hat, but it does lack the mark โ that special production touch โ that a genuine collaborator could have brought to the project. She worked with several hired hands, including one local rock producer and an overseas electronic production team, and the result sometimes feels like tracks that are a slightly uneasy combination of several disparate styles. Fay also admits that she doesnโt have a strong sense of staying true to one style of music, gets bored easily with just one style, and thereโs a sense that she needs a really strong personality in the production chair to forge a project thatโs sonically and stylistically of a kind.
Butโฆ Show Me The Right Way (as I said in the opening paragraph) is full of memorable tunes, which Fay sings with varying degrees of conviction and success but generally does okay, and itโs not the piece of rโnโb diva crap that many would assume it to be. Rather than the torrid moves of a Rihanna (now thereโs a diva who really canโt sing), Fayโs album is actually quite low-key and reflective, and itโs an eclectic thing that simply canโt be bagged as easily as its detractors suggest.
Song by song, then.
The album opens with โRiverโ, the first single, and itโs not that far removed from the soul-pop of Janet Jackson, or her brother on a good day, complete with strident gospel chorus. Itโs a little clichรฉd, and her voice sounds tweaked and reinforced by multi-track recording, but whose isnโt?
โWhen We Were In Loveโ is a soul-influenced ballad, and itโs a bit insipid, so the album certainly hasnโt put its best foot forward from the get-go.
โShow Me The Right Wayโ, however, is a doozy. This song, with its obvious Bollywood influence, sense of fun, comedic sound effects and crisp percussion, is a definite highlight.
โAlready Homeโ is a piano-led ballad, and brings the pace down just when she should be ramping things up. Itโs okay, but her vocal performance on this is undistinguished.
Fatally, this is followed by yet another ballad, in โNot Enoughโ. This is a much stronger choice, however, and the mix of snapping beats and acoustic guitar makes it somewhat appealing, despite boasting the worst lyric line on the whole disc: โEverything went from right to wrong/Like thatโ. Come again?
โLoveโs A Bitchโ is the best track, carried by a Carole King piano line and a genuinely rich and impressive vocal performance. Itโs a revenge song, and Fay sounds, even at her youthful age, like the voice of experience.
But just when things are getting bold and brassy, Fay opts for yet another low-key track, โWho You Areโ, a reflective piece with trip-hop drums that sounds more โadult contemporaryโ than โchart popโ, even as her lyrics betray her age.
โSteal Awayโ is another highlight. Itโs probably a bit cheeky in its wholesale cribbing of an old Hollywood-style chorus line, but that imbues it with real character, and again, itโs fun.
โJessicaโ is apparently about Fayโs sister, and itโs another weepy ballad with strings (real or conjured, itโs hard to tell). Itโs not the song so much as the production that does the business on this track: the producers have gone to town on this, with cool stereo panning, bowel-scraping (but not booty) bass and crispy freshness you could just eat.
The last track is a bit of an anomaly, and a throwaway: that old Broadway standard, โSpookyโ. She does a reasonable job of it, but do we really need an Annabel Fay karaoke?
To sum up, Show Me The Right Way isnโt the worthless product of a rich bitch. Itโs not a work of genius, either. Itโs a better than average attempt at an old-fashioned, eclectic pop album, with its share of flaws but also some genuinely well-crafted and effective moments. In other words, itโs not my cup of tea, but itโs way better than a lot of the international tripe that raids our charts and our record racks. GARY STEEL
SOUND = 3.5/5
MUSIC = 3/5
Annabel Fay – Show Me The Right Way (Siren/EMI) CD REVIEW
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Great review – And I could not agree more in regards to Love’s a Bitch being the best song on the album. Steal Away is fantastic as well.
“If thereโs any fault here, itโs that of a system that is so easy to exploit in the first place.”
Bollocks. Just because you *can* do something doesn’t mean you *should*. Ever heard the word “integrity”? You’re just making a feeble attempt to defend a bludger.
i luv annabel fay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=)=)=)=)=
she rox