[rating=2.50]
Saint Saviour is the stage name of Becky Jones who first came into the spotlight as a vocalist on Groove Armada’s 2010 album Black Light. Her first full length solo release Union finds her mixing and mining soundscapes and various singer/songwriting frontiers over the course of 14 songs with various success.
The release itself was entirely funded through Pledgemusic and allowed the artist a unique freedom for her first full length album which she wrote, A&R’ed, wrote and performed herself. There may be a bit of overindulgence but the standout tracks are the ones where Jones experiments the most.
“Ain’t No Hymn” contains tons of changes and parts that literally sound like they are blowing in via electro wind before dipping into disco beats and soprano vocal swells. “Jennifer” starts tripped out before getting it’s full on Saturday-night-afterhours Techno face on and “I Call This Home” propels forward via a fast backbeat behind sonic swirls and lyrics about the struggle of dealing with where you were born.
Then again not all of these upbeat electro-pop songs are winners, “Liberty” resembles Belinda Carlisle’s “Mad About You” while stretching Jones’s vocal range before asking if we are really free? That may blow club goers minds, but rings hollow here and “Domino” with its hip-hop add-on just feels odd in the middle of the album
When Jones leans more towards simpler singer/songwriter tracks like “Tightrope” and “Fallen Trees“ her style seems stunted. Where the electro/adventurous tracks paint short films the singer/songwriter works feel like network tv reruns. Perhaps her future lies in a track like “Fight” which starts out fairly plain before building and adding layers of bells, strings, clicks and piano parts as it goes ending winningly.
Like female artists Karen-O and Annie Lennox, Jones seems to have confidence in abundance and a plethora to write about. The artist Jones resembles most however is fellow Brit Kate Bush stylistically, vocally and in her willingness to experiment, not afraid to explore herself and the sound; traits that should help her greatly as she continues to grow.
