Review – FREYjA
“The Siren’s Odyssey”
Independent album
When
an artist fails to fail, be it in the studio or live on stage, it is not easy
to maintain a level of professional bias. Rebecca
Rennie is one of those unfailing artists – to know the level of
growth from “FREYjA
with Rebecca Rennie” makes it all that more difficult to approach this
record with the view to hearing it for the first time, but here goes…
Recorded
toward the middle of 2000, just prior to her appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival for the Northern
Summer, “The Siren’s
Odyssey” is the second album for Sydney singer-songwriter-diva Rebecca
Rennie and FREYjA,
a band whose membership changes from guitar and bass in the local restaurant to
a full 9-piece Latin/Jazz/Folk/Pop/Blues (“Eclectic Ffazz” as Becc
calls it) combo at the Sydney, London, New York or
Amsterdam night club. Siren
shows a depth of inspiration not really expressed in FREYjA, but that was more than a couple of years
ago and in those years Becc has made some influential friends who have
all added their experience to the experience that is Siren.
One Happy Day
opens this night’s entertainment with Rebecca’s
voice, if only for a few notes, and, as the song suggests, one happy tune. The
following nine tracks peak and trough as you’re taken on a musical and
emotional trip around the world: from Provincial France to Soho beatnik poetry,
New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration, Caribbean beach resort and South American
Equatorial jungle encounter. My favourite track is Don’t Bother Going
Home, as it reminds me of the night some bogan asked
her to sing a Sherbet
song at Neutral Bay,
but also because of the Alan
Ginsberg/Hunter
S Thompson feel to the whole thing. I also like Down
The Castle, Why Would I?,
One Happy Day and
Magnolia
for the reminder of that day at Sony that Becc,
Todd & I tried to piece together a suitable track listing for the record.
We didn’t come up with this list that day, but there is no faulting any of this
version in any way.
“The Siren’s Odyssey”
is not a purist’s record. It is a collection of different styles of music as
only Rebecca
Rennie and her consortium can make. So Montreux is a Jazz festival… so many of her
associates are actually Jazz musos… as Becc
says, it’s not just Jazz that they play, it’s Eclectic Ffazz! Get into it, whatever your
muse!