Good Day Bad

donna regina - Why

Lyrics by Kenton Hall
Music by Kenton Hall, Marion Fleetwood & Chris Ilett

How do you get someone out of your head
If they’ve been drunk or mad enough to share your bed
Is there a book I'm supposed to have read
That explains it all?

Should I stride down the street with a confident gait?
With my heart set to stone and my tongue to berate?
Puffed up with pride and relying on fate
To cushion my fall

Cause I know that I'm just as dumb as a brick
Cause I'm too old to be feeling this dizzy and sick
And I know I might have made a damned fool of myself
But darling you helped

How do you get someone out of your heart
When the ending’s commenced before anything starts
Is there a way we can skip to the part
Where this all makes sense?

Cause I know that I'm just as dumb as a brick
Cause I'm too old to be feeling this dizzy and sick
And I know I might have made a damned fool of myself
But darling you helped

Am I making this harder, than it needs to be?
I could play it much smarter
But that wouldn’t be me.

Oh and I know that I'm just as dumb as a brick
And I'm too old to be feeling this dizzy and sick
And I know I might have made a damned fool of myself
But darling you helped

Oh and I know that I'm just as dumb as a brick
Cause I'm too old to be feeling this dizzy and sick
And I know I might have made a damned fool of myself
But darling you helped
Darling you helped.

from Omniopath, released January 31, 2023
Marion Fleetwood: Strings, Guitars, Instruments, Vocals
Tali Trow: Piano, Bass

Dumb As A Brick (Marion Fleetwood Version)

Shaped By Light

Nick Waterhouse

Wreck the Rod

Meshell has changed. So has her music. It’s more peaceful, freer. Her new album, Weather, cloaks itself in the colours of autumn, full of in-between shades and hues and with a certain mildness to it. The singer has let her feelings carry her along. Meshell has never been scared of sharing her most intimate thoughts in explicit or colourful terms that always come from the heart. As ever, she is true to herself. But Weather’s folk sensibility and pregnant acoustic melodies make this a supremely accessible album.

“For a long time I was at war with everyone else. I dug my heels in, I fought hard. That’s all over now. I have my opinions, but they’re no longer a source of conflict with the rest of the world.” On Weather Meshell’s usually deep vocals slip into a register more like a whisper, sharing secrets about subjects that are straightforward, almost light-hearted. She has pared down her style to something like pop. “I started to write this album on the guitar and you can hear it. The final atmosphere’s gentler.”

And then the singer agreed without fuss to put her fate in the hands of a producer. Joe Henry (Ani DiFranco, Bettye Lavette, Allen Toussaint, etc.) helped her reveal a different side to herself. And Meshell went along with this. “I’ve known him since the Bitter album; Craig Street introduced us. I hadn’t called on someone from outside for several albums. But contrary to what everyone thinks, I love getting other opinions, hearing a different point of view and allowing myself to be led by someone with strong ideas. It’s a dialogue. This kind of experience really motivates me.” One might well have imagined her bent protectively over her compositions, her own personal, contradictory and profound world. But she says that she wants to continue this experience in future projects with other musicians. She mentions Brian Eno and Lee Scratch Perry.

She worked the way she likes to with Joe Henry - just two or three takes to capture the spontaneity and freshness of the moment. She is accompanied by Chris Bruce (guitar), Deantoni Parks (drums), Keefus Ciancia (keyboards), Gabe Noel (cello) and guests Jay Bellerose (drums) and Benji Hughes (backing vocals). Meshell recently did some producing herself – for jazz singer Laïka Fatien and rising star Selah Sue. Despite the pop-folk sound of Weather, jazz remains a major source of inspiration. “I love jazz musicians. They’re free; they have no fear. I’ve done pop and there are lots of barriers, lots of holding back. You have to stick to the conventions. Jazz musicians embrace uncertainty and adventure, even in their private lives. They’re more open and often more skilled, both in the studio and on stage.”

On Weather, Meshell sings of the ups and downs of love, one of her favourite subjects. Her heroines are marked by the void left by the loved one (“Object”) or else, like a game of mirrors, pour out their heart about the hurt they have caused others. She does a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel”, dedicated to Janis Joplin, an extremely sad and somewhat sexist song, as well as “Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness” by Soul Children, a sixties soul band, whose message she has made her own. Her own lyrics are always concise, precise or allusive, full of images and poetry (“I want to be your answer”). “They’re like mantras, some phrases cast to the wind, images that pop into my mind. Then I add the music.” She also talks about the wider world on a few tracks. ‘Oysters’ is about “the change that everyone talks about but never comes”. Meshell explains that “Consumerism is gaining ground all the time. We all live to get a new car or a new computer, but what’s the point?” So, join the great world party? “Not for me,” she replies in Dirty World. “I live two hours from New York. I ran away from all the dirt. There’s a farm where I live, and healthy food. I love cooking – it’s not all that different from making music. You need ingredients, and the greatest pleasure is when you share it share it with others.”

Good Day Bad

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