On ‘It Wasn’t Me’ from her ninth solo album, Showtunes from the Shadows, Helen McCookerybook sings, “I’m a chameleon / I’ve got my colours on.” This neatly sums up her creativity and range since the late 70s. After playing in Brighton-based punk bands Joby and The Hooligans and The Chefs, she formed Helen and the Horns and, in the 90s, became a music lecturer. Her thesis inspired her documentary film Stories from the She-Punks, which was released in 2018 and co-directed by Gina Birch from Kurt Cobain favourites The Raincoats. Birch is one of several collaborators on Showtunes from the Shadows. On McCookerybook’s previous album, Drawing On My Dreams, she was joined by Lindy Morrison from The Go-Betweens. Therefore, it’s quite possible that McCookerybook is the most well-connected musician in the UK right now.
The McCookerybook clan is a little-known clan on account of it not existing. The name is in fact a pseudonym prompted by a journalist’s request for a punk-sounding name like Sid Vicious or Fierce Pierce. By choosing a name that sounds like a Postman Pat character, McCookerybook did the most punk thing possible by subverting the expectation. If you’re expecting two-minute long three-chord songs with shouty vocals, you won’t find them on Showtunes from the Shadows.
Album opener ‘Three Cheers For Toytown’ begins with acoustic guitar strums and bright trumpet, and every word is delivered with the crystal clarity of a primary school teacher trying to reach the back of the class. However, all is not as clear as first appears. Toytown is not a cartoon utopia but a place “Where the traditional wooden folk / Are painted in toxic paint / And telling offensive jokes / And the ladies are Sunday saints.” The song’s poetry with a bite delivered in a cheerful tone is a template for the rest of the album.
At the start of ‘The Ginger Line’, McCookerybook sings of writing a song in her head on her way to work, and the chorus celebrates the fleeting unity of being on the tube: “All life is there / People from everywhere / People from every walk of life / On the Ginger Line.” A lovely melodica melody then underlines this quiet feeling of joy – think The Last of The Summer Wine or Alan Bennett discovering a packet of bourbon biscuits that he thought he’d eaten.
‘Reaching for Hope’ is a breezy toe-tapper with rather more oblique lyrics. While we can’t be certain of the exact circumstances or what is being hoped for, we can be sure that “The wall that’s built up between us two / Has a track that we can tunnel through” is a beautiful metaphor for hope in general. The aforementioned ‘It Wasn’t Me’ is more sonically ambitious than the preceding songs, with guitar snaking in and out and a psychedelic incantation as the background to McCookerybook’s protestation that it wasn’t her.
‘Sixties Guy’ is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to a “cool cat” who might not be completely thrilled that a song has been written about him. Next up is the harmony-laden ‘Puppet’ then ‘Margaux Interlude’, which is, in McCookerybook’s own word, “chillout”. ‘Spy’ is the antithesis of a bombastic Bond theme – two arpeggiated chord sequences are the simple acompaniement to a tale of an unnamed sleuth. Similarly, ‘The Porter Rose At Dawn’ is a richly illustrated tale of an unnamed individual at work. Its luscious, woozy tempo will have you swaying in your chair or sashaying to wherever you’re going. Final song ‘Send In the Detectives’ is, like ‘Reaching for Hope’, a more abstract affair, with gentle guitar belying the anxiety-ridden lyrics “Send in the detectives / Because we are all at sea / Losing our perspective / And our sanity”.
It seems apt that there’s a song on Showtunes from the Shadows called ‘Sixties Guy’, as McCookerybook’s idiosyncrasies and intricate storytelling bring to mind The Kinks (‘Village Green Preservation Society’) and The Beatles (‘She’s Leaving Home’). Showtunes from the Shadows is like enjoying toast with homemade jam while listening to an Ibsen play on Radio 4. It’s twee and philosophical – it’s philosoph-twee. You heard it here first.
Showtunes from the Shadows is out 17th January via Tiny Global Productions.
