SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ELAINE HOWLEY – THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HEART AND MOUTH

Elaine Howley
The Distance Between Heart And Mouth
Touch Sensitive Records

When singer songwriters decide to turn their written or recorded diaries into music, they are actually undertaking a very risky tactic. The results can be quite boring and pedestrian, starting with that well-worn blues line “when I woke up this morning…”.  On the other hand, they can turn into a very intriguing musical affairs, full of excellent music as well as lyrics, or should we say diary excerpts. It would all depend on the imagination and the ability of the artist to turn all that into good music.

Singer songwriter Elaine Howley, who has a very solid track record in the Irish musical underground, takes on this concept on The DIstance Between Heart and Mouth, her debut solo album (no less). The album is a product of an audio diary Howley kept on a 4-track cassette machine throughout 2019 and 2020. As she explains the idea was to include all the initial musical influences and ideas and turn them into a unified whole.

And what a set of influences they are, Forget the usual tortured artist with an acoustic guitar usually associated with singer songwriters, Howley’s musical world is inhibited by more experimental dream pop and tri hop artists from Cocteau Twins to Broadcast and elsewhere. And, Howley is able to give a very personal perspective to all these influences, actually being able to tie them all into a unified whole.

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