Music / Reviews
Review: Elly Hopkins, the Ill Repute – ‘Brushed drums and a bruised heart’
There’s something lovely about Old Market’s Ill Repute. It’s noisy and thrums with laughter, it’s retro-trash and good for the soul, it radiates a lived-in charm and provides everything that you need.
It is, therefore, the perfect place for Bristol-based singer-songwriter Elly Hopkins to launch her debut single. She exudes the same warmth as her surroundings, has the same fuzzed-up vintage vibes and is just as good for the soul.
If First Aid Kit had more dirt beneath their fingernails, or CMAT spent less time beneath a glitter ball and a bit more time on a dark, dust-filled highway, then they might sound like this.
They might produce this scuffed-up, heartfelt alt-country.
Animal starts with a heavy, psych-filled bass throb, with Hopkins’ voice nestling inside of it, a blurry, busted-amp fuzziness that crackles around the edges. Tom Kuras gives it some country twang, echoes of lap steel in his tremolo, and the scene is set.
As the taillights fade on Daylight, you’re left with the grit of an American highway in the corner of your eye. Hopkins unleashes a Janis Joplin growl across the epic sweep of a road movie. T
here’s a Stonesy, Not Fade Away groove to Headstrong: Hopkins says it’s “one for the menstruators” but, really, it’s one for anyone with a pulse. Scott Hammond’s shuffling indie drums are absolutely irresistible.
With its retro-trash, lived-in charm, the Ill Repute was the perfect place for Hopkins to launch her debut single, Cecile
The indie groove huddles under a country blanket several times tonight. Run Out of Road is, simply, a great song; it snags on ears, causes toes to tap and almost stops those four blokes (why is it always blokes?) chatting by the bar.
There are other moments where Hopkins creates an air of PJ Harvey-like spindly menace, still others of blasted desert blues. Sometimes you can picture these songs disappearing in the back of a white Cadillac, driven at speed.
The single that Elly Hopkins is launching tonight is Cecile. It’s a tale of professional jealousy, of being unfairly slighted, it’s a swipe at a big-name singer but it’s done with such grace.
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There’s a late-night swoon that hides the pain, Hopkins and Hammond syncopating beautifully, brushing the hurt into the corners.
Only the occasional talon-scratch from Kuras gives anything away. It’s the sound that a dance hall makes at the end of a night, while the glitter ball is still revolving but everyone’s gone home. There are brushed drums and a bruised heart.
Tonight, you can see that Americana highway stretching out before her with all of the adventures, the friends, the warmth and the interesting places to stop. Tonight, Elly Hopkins triumphs.
Read more of Gavin’s thoughts on music at tallfolk.substack.com
All images: Gavin McNamara
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