I’ve waited an age for the chance to review Torres here, and with a new album, ‘Thirstier’ just announced (30 July) together with this first single from it I’m not going to turn down the chance.
It’s no coincidence that her song ‘Concrete Ganesha’ has been #1 on my private Spotify playlist since the day I set it up and I ain’t puttin’ wishes in my head to change that anytime soon.
Mackenzie Scott is all about passion and power in her work, which emerges out of formal song writing training paired with English Literature at University and you can tell. She’s one of the nearest we’ve got to a contemporary female Shakespeare, along with her American peers such as St Vincent, Jenny Lewis, Fiona Apple and Little Scream.
“If we're calling off the funeral/Then I'm calling for a hitching/Just when I thought that it was over/It was only just beginning”.
Guitar focused at first her songs became more electronic over time and on this track she merges and manages both styles in a way that she’s succeeded in cornering all for herself. It belts along seemingly in one non-stop verse without any need for pesky choruses or bridges while she shreds like there’s no tomorrow, and leaves you gasping for air.
The video may be slightly uncomfortable for some but hey, it’s appropriate to the song.
I’m trying to imagine this played live. I was fortunate enough to see her at The Soup Kitchen in Manchester a few years ago, a venue which lived down to its name at the time although it was subsequently tarted up a little. As she clambered on stage she looked terrified, as if she’d wandered into some Skid Row speakeasy by mistake.
Then she blew the audience away with one of the most dynamic live shows I’ve seen and with a band to die for including a drummer who could count to eight better than most. Listen to ‘Concrete Ganesha’ and you’ll understand what I mean.
If you’d like to see her live (and I strongly recommend it) unfortunately you’ll have to wait until March 2022 in the UK, and that’s as things stand now. Her 2020 European tour was dramatically called off just two weeks into its run.
Find her on Facebook.