Echobelly at The Lexington, London, gig review: A handy time for them to return
New songs hold promise, recalling the verve of their mid-Nineties salad days
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Your support makes all the difference.Like nearly any band with a guitar and a chorus you could whistle on your way to work, Echobelly rode the all-conquering Nineties Britpop commercial wave, though with more élan than some.
With a clutch of swaggering Blondie-meets-The Smiths singles, they racked up six Top 40 hits, gold and platinum albums and with singer Sonya Madan boasted an antidote to the laddish cartoon that the movement became.
Now that the sun is shiiiiining on anybody with shares in Britpop nostalgia – packaged reunion tours, indie weekenders, potted history documentaries – it seems like a handy time for Echobelly to return, 13 years since last album Gravity Pulls sank without trace.
Madan and guitarist Glenn Johansson are all that remain from the original line-up at this small gig to showcase tracks from forthcoming new album Anarchy and Alchemy.
As Echobelly’s primary components, that’s not an issue: Madan’s voice is raspier, but her presence radiates poised joy; on Echobelly’s best tracks – “King of the Kerb” and the insanely catchy “Great Things”, which Madan allows the crowd to sing – Johansson’s uplifting guitar lines still sound infused with that particular brand of (blind) optimism that defined the era.
Not everything is as remarkable, though the new songs hold promise, recalling the verve of their mid-Nineties salad days: “Hey Hey Hey” has a sweeping riff and a catchy “oh oh oh!” chorus; “Faces in the Mirror” breezes by as if on the backend of a Shine compilation.
Best of all is title track “Anarchy and Alchemy”, a song full of drama and intrigue that uses The xx-style guitars and a haunting chorus to discombobulating effect.
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