Revenge and return.

Fefe Dobson is, sine qua non, the artist who has bought more folks to this blog than any other.  Some others have more recently given her a run for the money but they are not even close as yet!

That her first, the self titled Fefe Dobson and to date only released album, pre-dates this blog by almost three years may therefore come as something of a surprise.

Her second album would have been Sunday Love but her label dropped her after it was recorded and just before its release. Things come and they go, sometimes in strange ways.

The track-list for Joy is this. The release date soon, July I believe:

1. I Want You

2. Ghost

3. Watch Me Move

4. You Bitch

5. Thanks For Nothing

6. Can't Breathe

7. Didn't See You Coming

8. Let's Go (Turn It Up)

9. I'm A Lady

10. In Your Touch

11. Set Me Free

12. Joy

Many thanks to 'Angel' for much of the above information and to everyone else who has made this one topic the most sought after over the last three years.

The Penny Has Dropped --- Old imprint, new brand.

Until very recently there was the 'Universal Classics and Jazz' imprint with a name that quite accurately had all the impression of one that, while representing a very broad approach to the palette implied (also true), was chosen as the result of a lack of a better idea.
Well, its changed... not to some clever digital-age acronym but instead to that of an old friend from the strictly analogue age!
"The penny has dropped" is an appropriately old-fashioned analogy and one of certain relevance.

It is I think part of a policy that is actually more widespread in the world of major labels; witness the current major promotion of the 50th anniversary of Island Records, now another Universal imprint. The rôle of the major label as behemoth isn't the panacea the industry once believed it would be and it certainly isn't cool anymore, if it ever was, with a public that more than ever need tempting with incentives to buy music on whatever format rather than just download it illegally.

Portishead 3 again.

Unless what I'm seeing is in some way very wide of the mark this album is going to be one of the big surprises of 2008 and I can't think of another that has a groundswell of opinion in quite the way this album does.

Portishead 3

1. Silence – 4:59
2. Hunter – 3:57
3. Nylon Smile – 3:16
4. The Rip – 4:30
5. Plastic – 3:27
6. We Carry On – 6:27
7. Deep Water – 1:30
8. Machine Gun (Barrow/Gibbons) – 4:43
9. Small – 6:45
10. Magic Doors (Barrow/Gibbons/Baggott) – 3:32
11. Threads – 5:47

Unless indicated otherwise all tracks were written by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons and Adrian Utley.
If any other newly released album is going to give Madonna's 'Hard Candy' a run for its money in the UK album chart this week surely this is it!
The single-sided 12" single 'Machine Gun' (14 April 2008) could be worth tracking down too as it is an amazing mix and there aren't that many copies around.

Whatever happened to Fefe Dobson?

Well it is now quite a while since I posted the last update so here, at long last, is a new one: Return & Revenge.
It's about the new album, which is entitled Joy.
Fefe who??? Quite! [For the latest that I know see here.]

If you can remember this, her 2003 eponymous début album, then I suspect you do know who...

Yes, it was not huge and that was certainly true here in the UK but I think it was good nonetheless. Good enough indeed that Island (Universal) went ahead with the recording and production of her second album, Sunday Love, only to then terminate her contract and not release the album either. Or at least that is what I gather happened...
A few copies almost certainly do exist but the asking price for those I've seen offered for sale is in excess of £500 (very roughly $1050 & €700). Amazon.co.uk still list it but only as available from third parties at the above ridiculous prices. It would appear that even the cover artwork was completed, which I think only adds to the suspicion that it was shelved at the very last possible moment, and here it is.

I assume that Island/Universal are simply refusing to grant a licence on the copyright of the recording to anyone else willing to release it. So for an artist, stuck in the worst of all worlds and stymied by major label woes, this must seem about as cynical and demoralising as it can get for had they binned her just before the album was recorded she could have touted it elsewhere (subject only to some rather less overwhelming issues).
This is clearly nowhere near the whole story and I'd be fascinated to know more even if it is, like much of the above, only hearsay and speculation.