Staff Reviews

Rose Elinor Dougall - Without Why

Review by Aaron Lavery

The record is peppered with supremely confident moments of sassy tunefulness.»

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rough trade exclusive with a bonus 6 track cd featuring early album demos. ex pipette bares her battered soul, platering the wounds with sophisticated, seductive sounds. sometimes bands act as incubators for the stars of the future. so it is with rose elinor dougall, who joined polka-dot popstrels the pipettes as a teenager and left four years later as a young woman with a drive to strike out on her own. the 24 year-old now releases her sparkling debut album, 'without why', which presents her as the new face of smart, sophisticated indie pop, full of baroque twinkles, killer melodies and heartfelt lyrics. 'without why' features 11 tracks whose influences betray dougall's still tender years. although a love of the folk music she inherited from her parents record collection (fairport convention, bridget st john, joni mitchell) is easily detected in the melodies throughout the album it's the delicate textures of decidedly english alt-pop greats like the smiths, felt, the durutti column and the sundays that seem to frame the songs in a, unique, decidedly brittle, yet romantic exterior. although previous singles ('another version of pop song', 'start / stop / synchro', 'fallen over') are the tracks shouting the loudest, it's the slower more thoughtful material from her debut ('find me out', 'watching', 'may holiday') that demonstrate how far dougall has come from the days of 'pull shapes'.
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