Difficult Woman - Renee Geyer

Review by Les White
The Drum Media, 13/9/94 Edition 206

Were your average record exec to openly suggest a musical coupling between Paul Kelly and Renee Geyer, heads would nod knowingly and rumours would spread rapidly - 'Bob's been spending just wee bit too much of his expense account on debilitating substances' - that kind of thing. But they'd be wrong. Together, Kelly and Geyer have concoted one of the most satisfying soul albums heard for some time.

As well as producing the album, Kelly makes substantial songwriting contributions throughout, whether through collaboration with Geyer or in his own right. Careless and Sweet Guy, two songs so closely identified with Kelly, are redesigned from the ground up, Geyer making inimitably her own. Careless becomes an Afro/soca groove, Kelly himself providing something of a rap midway through the song, while Sweet Guy is transformed into something eerie, brooding and vaguely waltzlike. Where Kelly has always distanced himself emotionally from the subject matter of his songs, Geyer exorcises herself through them. Likewise the Beach Boys' God Only Knows is stripped back to just piano and vocal, Geyer's husky tones articulating the song's message of devotion to 'lump in the throat' inducing effect.

The album's title track, Difficult Woman, could have been (and possibly was) written with Geyer in mind. Over a sparse and simmering backbeat, Geyer sings her life. By turn, her vocals are strident, sultry, petulatn and soothing. And nobody swoops with such affecting grace from a whisper to a scream as Ms Geyer.

Difficult Woman was recorded in the States with some of California's best. The Yellowjackets' Jimmy Haslip's fluid lyrical bass playing features prominently throughout. Just listen to his slippery bass break on Close, the album's opening track. Likewise guitarist Johnny Lee Schell, on loan from Bonnie Raitt, plays with exquisite understatement, grace and timing.

Soul diva, jazz chanteuse, queen of the blues...Geyer cuts it any way you want. It's a rare occasion that finds us hailing 'yesterday's hero' as the 'next big thing'. If there's any justice in the world, this though, is just such an occasion.