Happy 20th Anniversary to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s second studio album Shoot From The Hip, originally released October 27, 2003.
Shoot From The Hip, issued in the fall of 2003, was the second solo effort from English singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The album was meant to extend the commercial reach that her blockbusting debut Read My Lips (2001) had enjoyed. But it was not to be.
Unlike Read My Lips, Shoot From The Hip was a much more audacious project that likely confused the mainstream chart-going crowds of the day. Ellis-Bextor had opted to take a risk rather than just repeat herself; it was an approach that had served her well going all the way back to her Britpop roots in the late 1990s. Ellis-Bextor ended up as the frontwoman for a band primed for the period: theaudience. Their 1997 album of the same name spun off a string of evocative singles, but they couldn’t lift the commercial fortunes of the group’s eponymous offering. Shortly after theaudience disbanded, Ellis-Bextor was courted by the Italian disc jockey Spiller to lay down lyrics and vocals for his instrumental “Groovejet (If This Ain't Love).” Demurely inquisitive about the dance genre, Ellis-Bextor decided to take advantage of this new sound.
Off the back of the single’s success in and out of the clubs, Ellis-Bextor landed a deal with Polydor Records to cut her soon-to-be double platinum debut. On that same long player, among its classic and contemporary disco wares, were flashes of Ellis-Bextor’s wider pop interests and antecedent alternative roots.
Not long after the promotional tour for Read My Lips finalized, Ellis-Bextor began brainstorming her second LP. Hardly a shrinking violet when it came to her songwriting, Ellis-Bextor led on almost all the track scripting for her first outing; it was to be the same for its appropriately titled follow-up Shoot From The Hip.
Seeking to tighten her artistic inclinations, Ellis-Bextor kept her creative circles sparse; chief co-writers and producers on deck included, but weren’t limited to, Gregg Alexander, Matt Rowe, Jeremy Wheatley and Damian LeGassick. All of the gentlemen had considerable experience on their side, however, Ellis-Bextor let LeGassick helm a generous portion of Shoot From The Hip’s sound. Subsequently, the sonic arc of the album is consistent in a way its predecessor hadn’t been.
Electronic pop in a variety of flavors and tempos line the record as the two-pronged synth-groove approach of “Making Music” and “Mixed Up World” makes clear. The former entry makes use of a freestyle percolation pattern, whereas the latter possesses a light electro-R&B air amid its more punctuated, digital effects. Then, there are guitar-driven numbers (“You Get Yours”), modern torch songs (“I Am Not Good at Not Getting What I Want,” “Hello, Hello”) and other detailed pop experiments to be discovered that find Ellis-Bextor showcasing her stylistic strengths.
Listen to the Album:
Elsewhere, pieces like “Party in My Head” and “I Won’t Dance with You” stay allied to a modern four-on-the-floor vibe ensuring that she hadn’t hung up her dancing shoes despite dabbling in other genres. These various musical canvases are well-suited for Ellis-Bextor to illustrate her stories with her singular vocal and songwriting approach. The romance of “I Won’t Change You” and the exaltation of modern-day sisterhood in “Another Day” promised that Shoot From The Hip would be anything but a one-trick pony.
While Ellis-Bextor would meet her husband, The Feeling bassist Richard Jones, in 2002, she was still linked to her then-partner/manager Andy Boyd. It is Boyd's voice that joins in on “The Walls Keep Saying Your Name,” a prophetic cut that predicted Ellis-Bextor's personal and professional separation from him by the time Shoot From The Hip’s writing-recording cycle had concluded.
Unsurprisingly, the material on the album sports an underlying sense of emotional tension; this fraught relationship was discussed at length recently in her 2022 memoir Spinning Plates. However, Ellis-Bextor flipped this tumult into art on the aforementioned “The Walls Keep Saying Your Name” and other tracks from this epoch, notably “The Earth Shook the Devil’s Hand.” This selection sits on the B-side to the eventuating single “Mixed Up World.” Over a recurring acoustic guitar riff, Ellis-Bextor quietly spins her story of a doomed, toxic courtship; it is complex and dark, but also beautifully delivered.
Upon its presentation to Polydor, the label decided on a late October street date and earmarked the singles to represent Shoot From the Hip: “Mixed Up World” and “I Won’t Change You.” Each found respectable positions within the U.K. Top 10 and drove the collection toward its modest silver certification.
Ellis-Bextor reflected openly on Shoot From The Hip in a 2014 interview with Attitude Magazine in coordination with the unveiling of her then-fifth LP Wanderlust, “(Shoot From The Hip) was maybe a little bit darker. During that record I was going through a bit of a break-up, so there are a few break-up songs on there. I wasn’t feeling quite as funny and breezy as I was on the first album.”
Shoot From The Hip portrays a woman unwilling to rest on her laurels; Sophie Ellis-Bextor exceeded all expectations with this collection that has since beat back the undue criticism and commercial chill that met it upon its original reveal.
LISTEN:
Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2018 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.