Surface With A Smile is the second album by classical tinged chamber pop artistes Maven Grace who are the core duo of Henry Jack and Mary Home who are joined on the bands second album by co-producer Chris Merrick Hughes, and musicians Tom White, Diana Galvydyte, Charlie Jones, Clive Deamer, Marcus Efstratiou and Craig Chapman. The album was mixed by Sam Petts-Davies and Simon Willey. Surface With A Smile was recorded at Abbey Road and Bryan Ferry's Avonmore studio.
The album opens with the clanking dystopian sounds of No Music, then what are these sounds that lead to a brave new world, surely the future is full of music and not silence imposed by the Taliban or similar fundamentalist nutters. The vocals remind me of Rose Berlin singing with SPC ECO, eventually strings combine with the almost industrial percussion to open out new vistas.
Miss Arizona was the first single off the album, a song about a legendary nightclub in Budapest before World War 2 that was eviscerated, along with so many other things in that horrific conflict, this has a yearning to be able to turn back the clock, be able to visit your grandad's favourite hangout. Sadly the Danube runs red with the blood of the slaughtered, with a lone violinist full of sorrow for all of the fallen and destroyed.
Goodbye To All That a soft centred duet, waving goodbye to what once was, hoping for a more positive future, the choral flourishes build within the bucolic effective mix of strummed guitars and synths.
Four Feet, Sumatra is a eulogy for Mary's father, who died during the recording of the album, this is full of imagery from her childhood and the tales her dad told of his travels for work to Sumatra, with the butterflies evoking memories of Berastagi for me, this just needs someone dancing on broken glass for a genuine Sumatran feel.
Take Me To The Water is an early morning, dawn is breaking, trip to a lake, soft piano helps with the feelings of yearning, they don't find any gifted children at the water's edge mind. More like your love has slipped to the bottom of Lake Toba and can never be retrieved.
The Moon Is Down but they are sinking beneath the water fast, the sun hasn't risen, they are floating in a nether world of pain and distorted reality, the music is far more beautiful than the lyrics, hinting at possible salvation and ways to move on towards brighter times.
World Is Blue was inspired by the first photos that were taken of earth from Space in the 1960's, haunting synths and strings, hushed vocals float by like your in that tin can revolving around the globe, with Beach Boys reminiscent harmonic changes. Like much of the album it has a semi classical feel.
Queen Of Seaside Park is thankfully nothing like the queens hanging around on the outskirts of the parks by the front in Southend, this feels like a melancholic time watching the sea roll in.
Hail To The King no not the orange buffoon, or some other false god, but they want to carry you across the sea to a more complete life together, this feels haunted by the past and uncertain of the future, they try to make clear you can relax now, your troubles are far behind you, even if it will take more than a new home to cure you of the PTSD your suffering from.
The album closes with the title song Surface With A Smile another rather elegiac duet, encased in beautiful strings and imbued by memories, that hopefully still bring a smile to your face, despite all the horrors you've seen and the collapsing world around you. Hopes for being able to rebuild everything that has been destroyed or re-possessed, that may be a bridge too far.
Find out more at https://www.heliumrecords.co.uk/releases/maven-grace-surface-with-a-smile-lp/ https://linktr.ee/mavengrace https://www.facebook.com/MavenGraceMusic
