White Flags Of Winter Chimneys

The 5th full length album from pop revolutionaries Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman has been a long time coming. It's 10 years since the criminally ignored Girl Bros, not that these 2 have been resting much. Motherhood, scoring (you like the music in Heroes? check the credits) & session work (the likes of Nina Gordon, Lisa Germano & Neil Finn have all come knocking for their work) have kept them busy.
The kaleidoscopic "Balloon" opens the album inviting you to "nestle near a willing ear". That ear will be richly rewarded by the pop strut of "Invisible". The darker tones of this songs lyrics are echoed in the following tracks too. A rich tapestry of interwoven harmonies,fuzzed guitars and trademark deep moody keyboards provide the background to some damn fine tunes. Personal favourite "Niagra Falls" follows on the heels of the rock-out-honeytastic "Salt & Cherries". You just know a song namechecking the MC5 is going to be good. You wont be dissapointed.
Further textures are explored in the heart-breaking "You & I" and the emotional strain of the title track.
The album is brought full circle to the anthemic closer of "Sweet Suite" which has a cinematic feel, building to a crescendo via a refrain from the opening track. "Beginning at the end" no less but this album is far from a swansong from Wendy & Lisa. This is the opening of a brand new chapter. I look forward to the next installment and pray it's not a decade away.

You may remember Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman as the two enigmatic but charismatic musician girls forming a creative sub-section of Prince & the Revolution. After being catapulted onto the centre stage with the runaway success of Purple Rain, Prince eventually disbanded the Revolution in 1986 and the girls were involuntarily ejected from the hub of a hugely successful Rock / Pop powerhouse act out into the cold solar winds of the musical universe to fend for themselves.

After (what I imagine to be) a great deal of adapting to Prince's ways of working, Wendy & Lisa needed to re-adapt and forge a career within their chosen field as a duo, which they have achieved with great poise and grace. After releasing 3 studio albums (plus one remix album) Wendy & Lisa took their hand to Film/TV scoring and have worked on side projects with copious other musical talents (k.d. lang, Neil Finn, Seal, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Me'shell N`degeocello, Scritti Politti and Sheryl Crow to name a few) by making guest appearances on Albums and even tours.

This is merely a brief history of these two accomplished ladies. The scope of their talent and energy extends much further for those interested in digging deeper. So now to review the latest studio album release by Wendy and Lisa.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys (the title being a nod to a Joni Mitchell lyric) is a few distant leaps away from the pop/funk sound that you will hear in the first two Wendy and Lisa albums (in 1987 - Wendy & Lisa and 1989 - Fruit at the Bottom) but it is a solidly good album. The Wendy & Lisa output cross fader has slowly shifted from the pop/funk end of the spectrum over the years, through their (1990) Eroica and (1998) Girlbros albums, to a more electric-acoustic hybrid sound (not forgetting Lisa`s beautiful piano pieces). The overall resulting sound is rich, smooth, ambient in places with some upbeat rock tracks bringing balance to the beat count, but always partnered with a fine melody. One thing you can count on is the competence of these musicians to write, arrange, play and record to high specifications. Wendy & Lisa seem to have a knack for putting down tracks that are cutting edge cool, yet accessible, while drawing from their own life experiences which is testament to their seasoned song writing ability and finely tuned musical sensibility.

The opening track "Balloon", one of my favourites, whirls you into an ethereal, cotton wool world while Lisa's gentle and wistful lead vocal performance reels the audience in to avidly listen to every word. The lingering melody and chords of the chorus are strikingly beautiful as harmonies and layers progressively add to the musical value. Another standout track is the play-it-loud rock anthem "Salt and Cherries (MC5)" . I defy anyone to refrain from singing along by the end of your first listen. Wendy demonstrates her ever present ability to fashion a killer guitar riff both in "(MC5)" and the next track "Niagra Falls". This album also has it's cool-down moments such as "You & I" which brings more of the folk influenced acoustic sound that the girls have perfected. The final track "Sweet Suite" is a breathtakingly beautiful instant classic which ebbs and flows with ambience layered beneath Lisa's piano and vocal, gliding into a glorious mid-tempo affair and then becoming it's own rich soundscape commanding your full attention to absorb the whole emotional journey that it takes you through. You may initially perceive Sweet Suite as a sombre, melancholic piece, but as it continues it conveys sentiments of acceptance, hope, joy and comfort, purely through music which can only be achieved by those who operate at the very top of the musical game. Sweet Suite is truly moving however the sound is interpreted. I honestly believe that you will think so too.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys is most definitely worth a listen if not a purchase. I hope we don't have to wait so long for the next album otherwise it won't be due until 2018!

Vinyl lovers - please note that the vinyl version of White Flags... is an absolute treat at over 180g in weight, coloured and packaged with so much attention to detail, just for the love of it all.

after a 10 year hiatus (scoring TV shows and movie scores) wendy and lisa are back with what is a sublime album. from the 1st chords of balloon you are taken on a journey that you don't want to get off. if you only buy one album this year make it this one - quite simply it is flawless.