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The Kirsty MacColl web site
MacColl's career has had more stops and starts than the London Underground
since she started off with Stiff back in 1979. Now, after the irretrievable
breakdown of her relationship with Virgin after the excellent Kite and
Electric Landlady, comes Titanic
Days. In
the three years since the last album she's used the time to conquer her legendary
stage fright and tour the world fronting a guitar-based band. The Latin
flavourings of Electric
Landlady are bypassed here but there's still a variety of textures with
MacColl rebelling against life as a female accessory on the showtune pastiche
Bad,
and giving an emotional bully a good kicking on the overproduced rocker Big
boy on a Saturday night. MacColl's songwriting switches effortlessly
between pathos and a sardonically raised eyebrow, so songs like the title track
and Can't stop killing you tremble between dreams
of revenge and twinges of forgiveness. The true showstoppers, however,
are Soho
Square and Angel, both trance-like, hymnal
songs in which self-doubt seems finally to resolve into something joyous and
MacColl herself emerges from behind the wit and the wordplay with a new emotional
directness.
Mark Cooper 
Kirsty MacColl, arguably England's best-kept musical secret, has a welcome warning. "Look out, America, I'm coming to a town near you." The acclaimed singer-songwriter is in a jovial state of mind, anxious for American listeners to sink deeply into her debut I.R.S. album Titanic Days. After three albums and three labels, it's been a long time coming. "Well, I hope this is the one that makes it," she said recently, "but I never go into recording thinking like that. I mean, things evolve and I don't think there's some sort of master plan. I don't think, 'Hmm, I'm going to write this song for America.' I write for myself, really. If I had all the answers, I would've done it by now. It's not worth getting all worried about it, worrying about people's perceptions of what you do, what you don't do. If some people get it, then great. If some don't, then tough luck." It would be their loss. Titanic Days is MacColl's finest effort to date, combining a biting sense of humor with social consciousness and pop sensibility. In a way, it's her own Pet Sounds.
"I've always wanted to make a big-sounding album," the London-born artist says. "An album like Neil Young's Harvest, which was a big one for me when that came out. That's one of the few records I've bought and worn it out on vinyl and bought it again on CD. Like that, I hope my album will have an affect on people." She's well on her way with the first single, Can't Stop Killing You, co-written by Johnny Marr, and the notable tracks Soho Square, Angel, Big Boy On a Saturday Night, and the title cut. And then there's Bad, in which the singer yearns for a walk on the wild side. "I want to try something that I've never had," she sings. "Oh, look out world, I'm about to be bad."
"You're taught to be good all the time and not to get into any sort of confrontation," MacColl says. "I thought it was fun to put a twist on it and say, 'I'm gonna get me some.' Women aren't any better than men. They can be just as nasty. They try harder. It sounds like a bloody Paul McCartney song, 'There's good and bad in everybody.' Look, I'm surprised more people don't go crazy. That's basically what the song is about."
Gerry Galipault (October 8, 1993)
The flood of female singer/songwriters has breached a few levees this past year, for record companies ride trends as avidly as surfers search for the next big wave. On first listen, it would be easy to dismiss Kirsty MacColl's latest effort as just another breaker hitting the beach. Sure, MacColl has a distinctive voice, a great resume and a pretty fair album already to her credit, but why should record buyers pay any more attention to her than to Heidi Berry, say, or Jane Siberry?
The answer lies in a three-song stretch midway through Titanic Days. The title cut, Bad and Can't Stop Killing You up the ante with their unusual subject matter and powerful delivery, and even though they are surrounded by the usual wistful songs about lost love and loneliness, they serve to set this album apart from its many competitors. One reason the songs are so successful is that they can't be explained in a phrase, or even a sentence, which makes them unusual in an era when girl-misses-boy is considered a strong narrative. They are, as one would expect from this style of music, impeccably arranged and very well sung, but once the lyrics begin to sink in, the trio makes all the difference.
The rest of the album isn't actually bad, for MacColl is a fine singer with a set of producers who know what they're about, it's just very predictable. But Titanic Days is elevated to a higher level thanks to MacColl's ability to break through the usual boundaries, at least on three songs, and explore some territory usually ignored by her colleagues. If you're looking for a melodic album with glossy production to go along with some familiar tales of love lost -- and a little bite for dessert -- then Titanic Days is worth serious consideration.
British singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl has reached a new plateau on her third album, Titanic Days. In this fine release, Kirsty has penned tunes that are frequently cinematic in scope while also barbed in meaning.
And Kirsty has a right to be barbed. As the daughter of a noted English avant-garde poet/actor, and the wife of producer Steve Lillywhite (who has worked with The Pogues and U2), Kirsty has often found herself eclipsed by the more renowned male members of her clan. Add to this mix the fact that Kirsty was unceremoniously dumped by her last label, and her position becomes more clear -- she is no longer willing to be treated as a token woman.
As Kirsty notes, her new disc is moodier and "reflects the experience of massive change and turmoil on both personal and global levels; that dual fear and excitement of a huge tide where everything is constantly changing." For example, the mysterious title track (Titanic Days) is, according to Kirsty, based on a dream-inspired vision. On the rest of the album, the metallic-tinged voice of Kirsty is well-matched by her sharp wit and sense of humor. For example, on the playful Bad (or is it playful?) Kirsty sings that "I've been an awful woman all my life/A dreadful daughter and a hopeless wife/And I've had my eyes on that carving knife/Oh you've been lucky so far," while she concludes Big Boy on a Saturday Night with a softly satiric refrain -- "Oh yes my darling's such a big boy/On a Saturday night."
Although the charming Angel makes for a sweet single, the most radio-accessible track is Can't Stop Killing You, in which Kirsty lets down her guard in a song about a (lady) killer coming to town. Kirsty shows her kinky side as she croons, "He taught her how to pout/And he taught her how to tease/And he taught her how to beg/When she fell down to her knees" -- and it's believable.
Can't Stop Killing You is a vision straight out of Jim Thompson, and is one of the funkiest gender-benders since Prince's If I Was Your Girlfriend. On Titanic Days, Ms. MacColl shows that she's ready to escape the shackles imposed by outsiders and explore her own groove. Good for her. Let's have some more. (review found by BP)
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