On Please Daddy, a collection of songs written in the aftermath of her father’s passing, Sarah Mary Chadwick is understandably somber, yet never understated . Her voice rumbles in and out of decipherability, above compositions recalling Prince at his most emotional and Jeff Buckley at his least restrained, and a grandiose sadness envelops the record; grief, helplessness and fear the through running themes.
“I’m Not Allowed In Heaven” and “My Mouth My Cunt” hint at a gallows humour, but in title only. The names protecting the listener from the intense desperation that runs through these songs and, the further we move through the record, the further this shield slips and Chadwick slowly invites us in to a more naked desperation. And behind these sad winks of titles we find two of the more overtly sad songs on the album. The former’s refrain ringing “I see its lights shine bright, and they’re waving at me through the trees, but I’m not allowed in heaven, ’til I burn all the sin from me.”
Chadwick injects well worn minor key progressions with a sporadic playfulness, wry turns of phrase and, most importantly, a voice equal parts gargantuan and intimate, welcoming and off-putting. On standout “If I Squint” it is at it’s most crestfallen; her accent breaking through fanfare horns and punched piano, cracking at every turn: “I wrote a song for him, I wrote a song for her, I wrote a song for everyone whose body’s been burned, but who’s writing songs for the ways that I’ve been wronged?”
The unhinged nature of Chadwick’s voice, mixed with the occasionally expletive-filled mournfulness of the record, will ensure this is a record most likely not made for masses; but the raw emotional trauma on show will itself find an audience, in how it transforms these broad, impassioned themes in to something almost tangible for listeners to grab, and hold, on to over repeated listens.
