Celeste
Not Your Muse
Polydor
Listen Below
Being named as the BBC’s “Sound of…” is usually a pretty strong guarantee that your career is likely to be, at least, successful and at best, stratospheric. Past winners have included global juggernaut Adele, Michael Kiwanuka and Corinne Bailey-Rae—all artists with acclaimed careers and discographies of note.
2020’s winner was Celeste (who was also awarded the BRITS’ “Rising Star” award) and she soon began to experience the frenzy of expectation around her forthcoming debut. That the debut comes in the early stages of 2021 tells a tale in itself. According to her narration on Apple Music, the coronavirus pandemic allowed her space to take stock of what she had written for her debut and review it accordingly and allowed her to slow the pace down and let it breathe, so to speak.
A large part of the album is co-written with Jamie Hartman, a songwriter responsible for some sizeable hits in the past 15 years, not least the near ubiquitous “Human” for Rag’n’Bone Man. It is clear from the beginning that sights have been set high here—her voice is redolent of both Amy Winehouse and Adele, whilst some of the material boasts huge, soaring choruses that are similarly cut from the latter’s cloth.
And yet, there is a nagging feeling in the back of my head, that it is all too calculated. Listening to the album, I could almost hear the cogs of algorithms whirring and the marketing department pencils being sharpened, as they assign each song to the appropriate playlist on the streaming site of your choice.
This feeling was not helped by the presence of “A Little Love” as track eleven. The twee, saccharine track is labeled (where I listened to it at least) as “A Little Love (From The John Lewis & Waitrose Christmas Advert 2020).” Just in case you were wondering where you’d heard it. And why. And, indeed, when. It is very hard not to feel a sense of morbid dread at art being co-opted and marketed in such a brazen, soul-crushing way.
The album has two very definite threads. The first is a set of intimate, more acoustic moments where Celeste’s delicious vocal tones and empowering lyrics shine through to create sumptuous warmth. Album opener “Ideal Woman” is a prime example of this with its ruminative acoustic guitar and her husky, characterful voice telling a potential suitor “Please don’t mistake me for someone who cares.” There are other gems like the dreamy defiance of the title track “Not Your Muse” and “A Kiss”—both lend weight to the notion that less is more.
The high point of the album comes on another track that gives Celeste’s vocals space to breathe and beguile. The slinky, sensual joy of “Beloved” sounds like a throwback to the 1950s with the simmering glockenspiel, standup bass and wood block percussion. Her voice responds by radiating old Hollywood glamour and a tone that sends shivers down the spine.
The other thread that runs through the album are the more up-tempo, backbeat driven, contemporary sounding tracks. “Tonight, Tonight” boasts a stirring, soaring musical accompaniment but the character in Celeste’s voice is lessened and it begins to feel like a retread of things that others have done—be they Adele, Duffy or any other singer “du jour.”
The same thing can be leveled at “Love Is Back” and “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know”—these more commercial sounding songs will likely do very well and pop up endlessly signposting emotions on prime-time television shows, but they make her sound the same as her competitors when her voice deserves much better than that. She loses her individuality and her voice is not given the same space to work its magic.
To paraphrase a well-known football (soccer, to you Americans out there) commentator’s cliché, this album is very much a game of two halves. When given the right circumstances, Celeste’s decidedly lush voice is thrillingly characterful and bewitches easily, whilst her lyrical content exhibits a strength of character that is by turn empowering and fallibly human.
Conversely though, those strengths are lessened when denied the room to cast their spell. The faster, more commercial tracks may push the album to a wider market, but they don’t reveal as much or mark her out as someone different. It feels at those moments that she is a cookie-cutter version of those who have preceded her.
All in all, it marks the start of what should be a successful and promising career, as she has all the tools necessary to flourish. But next time, I’d like to hear more of her unique qualities and less of the things that stand in her way.
Notable Tracks: “A Kiss” | “Beloved” | “Ideal Woman” | “Not Your Muse”
LISTEN: