Catie Turner has certainly done a fair few miles in the music industry in the not-quite-a-decade since she caught the public imagination opening the most-watched episode of American Idol. But after years of industry turbulence, highs and lows, hard yards and heavy burdens, not to mention the loss of her father, she has reemerged from the storm a very different artist.
Still the powerhouse singer, still the writer of great songs, but now working independently of the machine and having turned those experiences – grief, heartbreak, loss, survival and soul-searching self-development – into (alt-)pop anthems for a new age. Finally, it feels like she has found where she fits in today’s music scene. Not so much putting the past behind her, but realising who she always was and being happy not to play the game anymore.
And ironically, or possibly not, it is her lack of playing by the pop rules that means her songs are all the more beguiling, not to mention more interesting and adventurous and exciting than anything the mainstream world usually has to offer; songs feel more engaging because they are not handed to you on a plate, you have to perhaps meet them halfway, or dig a little deeper than you otherwise might, which seems to invest them with a sense of longevity, easily able to survive the winds of changing fashion and fleeting fads.
‘Power,’ the opener, sums it up nicely: indie-pop vibes spiral up into beguiling crescendos or float into more ambient sonic pastures as she stamps her authority over her own destiny. When she slips into more identifiably pop territory, such as ‘Who Am I’‘s musing on the masks we wear, it’s laced with R&B grooves and forward-thinking authenticity and artistry.
‘Girl’s Girl’ also out-pops pop, offering sweet sonics and seemingly soft sentiments while exploring ideas of acceptance and what women have to do to navigate a predominantly male world. ‘Loser’ wanders into indie-folk delicacy, ‘Tourist Attraction’ picks up some pop-rock energy, and ‘Deer on 95’ ends on a serene soundscape.
Blue Alchemy feels like pop redemption, and Catie Turner might be the saviour of the genre. I doubt that she ever set out to be that; of course she didn’t, but by finding her own way to do pop music, by writing songs with something important to say, and never doing so at the expense of groove, accessibility and immediacy, she has rejuvenated a genre that has become staid and stale and obvious.
Imagine if all pop music were this discerning, this well wrought, this honest, this open. We’d probably have to find a new name for it; pop wouldn’t seem to do it justice.
Pop with a PhD? Absolutely!
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