Late Transmissions Starring Eve Quartermain

Late Transmissions Starring Eve Quartermain: The Heart Wants What It Wants

(Music Saves)

All formats available

Released 1st May

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Merseyside’s post-punk legends David Balfe and David Hughes unite under the banner of Late Transmissions and recruit incredible vocal talent of Eve Quartermain for their debut release

I guess that people may first be drawn to this release by the men behind Late Transmissions, David Balfe and David Hughes. A couple of old pals who last played together in Merseyside’s post-punk scene. For the album, The Heart Wants What It Wants, they’ve drawn on their wealth of music experience to create a classic-sounding album, something a little different in style from what you may expect. Their pedigree isn’t in doubt, Balfe, played with Big In Japan, The Teardrop Explodes, Lori and the Chameleons and others, before going onto be a producer, publisher, and founder of both Zoo Records (Echo and The Bunnymen) and Food Records (Blur). Hughes, Balfe’s band mate in proto-synth act, Dalek I Love You, went on to play with OMD and releasing three albums in a collaboration with singer Thomas Lang. He transitioned into a highly successful long-term career scoring TV & film (including “Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels” and US No.1 movie “The Bachelor.”)

Reuniting with a shared love for the orchestra-led classic pop of the likes of Scott Walker, John Barry, Dusty Springfield and Shirley Bassey, the enlisted the undoubted star of the piece, the sensational Eve Quartermain, who after stints in London and New York, found herself back home in Liverpool. The torch-singing femme fatale combines angry power with cracked vulnerability and a noirish teasing fatalism. Without doubt, hers is the pounding heart of the album.

Over 11 tracks, The Heart Wants What It Wants, delivers ‘a show’ that’s a cinematic adventure, evocative of classic widescreen soundtracks and sixties orchestrated pop, with a pinch of jazz and processed 90s noir beat, in some respects reminding me of Dexys 2012 album, One Day I’m Going to Soar, featuring the vocal talents of Madeleine Hyland in addition to Kevin Rowland and co.

Quartermain sets the tone with the opening number, ‘Hey boys, the show’s about to start, this girl’s got a voice that will rip out your heart’ on the opening Avenging Angel. The track is the prologue to the album’s loose narrative which is followed by the title track. The Heart Wants What It Wants offers that moment where the screen stretches out to full cinemascope. The album, as you would expect from the creators, shifts between styles, with Lightning Never Strikes Twice falling into trip-hop territory as does the later, avant garde, At The Starlight Lounge which bears some Portishead influence.

I Ruin Everything sees the protagonist, Quartermain, taking stock of her calamitous situation which then leads into A Little Drop Of Poison, a tale of revenge with a touch of black humour. The tone changes with the playful I’m Done With London. A good-time girl’s grim life story summed up in three verses, it could almost act as an overture for the whole piece. He’s An Unexploded Bomb bring things back down to earth with a gritty account of escape from domestic violence, setting the tone for the final act. In the aforementioned At The Starlight Lounge, our narrator finds the perverse demands of sex and money soon destroy her naive hopes and dreams, her singing ignored except for lewd voyeurs. The brooding The Kiss That Kills, exploring the eternal romantic clashes between genders, heralds the conclusion of this noir drama, culminating with the doomed extravagance of What Went Wrong? The lighter She Finds Love Wherever She Can acts as the epilogue. Its baroque poignance tells of a lady alone in a high-rise with only her cat for company, memories of her past stirring nostalgic desire for the thrills of youth – a woman desperate for a more glamorous, more romantic life.

In an age where albums are almost disposable, with tracks randomly shuffled on streaming services, The Heart Wants What It Wants is a refreshing reminder of the pleasure to be had of sitting down, really listening to an album, allowing oneself to be absorbed by it. It also warrants multiple plays to really appreciate the full story being told.

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All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree