Monica Queen is making a concerted effort to appear in my top 10 albums of the year for possibly the third year in a row with this stunning collection of cover versions and original songs.
An integral part of the Glasgow music scene going back to the 80’s, Monica owns what is surely the most stunningly recognisable voice on the circuit, ebullient and versatile and constantly in demand. Talking of in demand, partner in crime Johnny Smillie is surely one of the most sought after guitarists and producers in Glasgow, what he can’t do with a guitar just isn’t worth knowing. I wonder if there is another guitar slinger about town who is as admired and called upon… hang on, the savvy and accomplished Douglas McIntyre is here too? Where does he find the time?
With a line up that includes that trio, you cannot fail. If I started to list the phenomenal releases these three have played a part in, either together or as individuals, I’d still be here at Christmas…2023. When you match that talent with the list of songs and artists they have chosen to cover on Stop That Girl, its a mouth watering prospect. I’m not a fan of royalty but I’ll make an exception to celebrate this Queen and her Princes all day, everyday. The question is, Will Stop That Girl follow the Tenement and Temple album and The Birthday Poems into my top ten albums of the year? Do bears shit in the woods?
When you open the album with such an emotional cover of Bourgie Bourgie’s I Gave You Love, the guitars warm and luxuriant filling you with an extraordinary feeling of calm, Monica’s vocal soaring into the ether radiating love, whilst seemingly backed by a choir of angels, how on earth do you follow it? Fear not, there is plenty more to come, as they follow up the opener with a such a celebratory version of Captain Beefheart’s Too Much Time it is almost joyous beyond belief. If anything, it gets better with the album’s title track, a sympathetic re-working of the classic Vic Godard penned Subway Sect song. There is something to be said about this opening triumverate and the way in which Queen, Smillie, McIntyre and co. have approached the songs being sympathetic to the originals but making them entirely their own.
Seriously Monica, you’re going to do this to me? The Smillie/Queen original What is Home? which follows this edifying selection of covers confuses my addled brain, I’ve been raised to the heavens, then my heart is wrenched apart with the raw emotion expressed in this heart-rendingly beautiful composition. sheer beautiful melancholy within the lyrics, purity and sensitivity in the vocal delivery, and what about the compassionate musical arrangement? It wouldn’t be a review from me without talking about how the music makes me feel, but as I’ve tried to type and re-type this paragraph, I’ve honestly found it hard to remain composed as I listen to this extraordinary song on repeat, reaching its emotional peak time and again. “What is hope? What is home?” This is one stunning masterpiece and stands shoulder to shoulder with the extraordinary song-writing of the artists covered in this collection.
Quick, I need something to restore my dignity before I melt into a emotional wreck on the threadbare carpet of this hotel room. The intro of Deep in My Bones almost sounds like Christmas to me, enough to shake me back from the edge, and be enthralled by the entrancing combination of Monica’s breathy vocal and the somehow sumptuous but understated electric guitar. The pen/pick of Douglas McIntyre continues to impress as I (virtually) flip over to side two and the opulent tones of I Want You to Stop You’re Killing Me hit my eardrums.
Orange Juice’s Dying Day is next for the Monica Queen treatment, doing great justice to the Edwyn Collins classic, while the band manage to both channel the sound of The Velvet Underground and sound entirely like themselves on their exquisite version of Over You.
The angelic choir returns once again helping to create the sound of loss and longing on the winsomely prepossessing cover of Gene Clark’s Why Not Your Baby, before the album comes to an end all too soon with a real soulful feel in Beat Me Again, as Monica’s transcendent vocal fills the room and leaves you with goose bumps.
I’m a wreck. I think I need to listen again…
Whatever you do, DON’T stop this girl. I want to know what’s coming next year…