Music V3.qxp_Layout 7 23/10/2020 18:08 Page 1
MUSIC
Isoldé translates ancient expression into contemporary art-pop aesthetic
On song
Despite the challenges currently facing the city’s incredible creatives, the calibre of Bristol’s musical output is stellar
Yola – Hold On
One of the West Country’s most successful musical exports of the moment, Yola is due not only to open for Chris Stapleton at Madison Square Garden in New York next year, but to make her headline debut at The Ryman Auditorium. She’s just released empowering self-penned song Hold On, raising money for the MusicCares and National Bailout Collective and featuring members of The Highwomen including Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby on backing vocals. Hold On is inspired by conversations Yola had with her mother while she was growing up, explicitly warning her of the systemic racism, colourism and unconscious bias she would experience in life as a Black woman. Lyrics include the lines: Mama said to me stay bold / No matter what they tell you girl, stay bold / Everyone that seems alright / Has a soul that’s hurting, deep inside. “Hold On is a conversation between me and the next generation of young Black girls,” says Yola. “My mother’s advice would always stress caution, that all that glitters isn’t gold, and that my Black female role models on TV are probably having a hard time. She warned me that I should rethink my calling to be a writer and a singer but, to me, 30 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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NOVEMBER 2020
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No 194
that was all the more reason I should take up this space. Hold On is asking the next gen to be visible and to show what it looks like to be young, gifted and Black.” Give this uplifting tune a listen for the layers of evocative harmonies, beautiful lead vocal – oh, and Sheryl Crow, no less, on the old Joanna. • iamyola.com
Emily Breeze – Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl
On all digital platforms via Sugar Shack Records, the second single from Bristol chanteuse Emily Breeze’s forthcoming album retains her beautifully crafted pop noir trademarks. A glitter-drenched gothic disco anthem as slinky as a Blondie classic, its tough, world-weary melancholy recalls cult weepy bangers like Amanda Lear’s Follow Me or Agnetha Fältskog’s Wrap Your Arms Around Me. Breeze’s 2019 album Rituals saw comparisons to “a 21st-century Patti Smith” (Tom Robinson), “Nancy Sinatra on ketamine” (Louder Than War) and “the seedy kitchen sink romance of Pulp, the glamorous artful tragedy of Nick Cave” (God is in the TV). Now, swimming in luxuriant synths and whipped along by a minimalist beat, Breeze sashays through the dancefloor casualties to deliver a vocal of beguiling depth on joyously sad cut Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl. Billed as a
Image by Jesse Wild
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olitical messages, freedom and empowerment, escapism, fantasy and images of better times; these have dominated the music of some of the most turbulent periods throughout history and helped people to get through them. The value of that, and the impact of the creative arts more widely, cannot be underestimated. The music being created during tumultuous 2020 – the corona canon, perhaps – is no different. Despite the challenges facing their sector, Bristol musicians have squirrelled themselves away, continued to do what they do best, and panned for gold. Lockdown also spawned new collaborations and projects that finally got the time to breathe and develop. Our current listening recommendations, from established homegrown acts to the up and coming, are as follows...
