Lettie has been releasing her music since 2008's excellent debut album Age Of Solo, on which a charming and beguiling mix of old fashioned synths, guitars and clever looping combined to create startlingly original folky electro songs. This was rapidly followed by the more acoustic Everyman. Both albums mixed personal reflections with dashes of sci-fi, ecology and loads more to create hypnotic, dreamlike songs. Both albums were intelligent, catchy and hugely inventive and if there was any justice in this world then both should have reached a much wider audience.
2009 found Lettie occupying an excellent support slot on Peter Murphy's European tour (Murphy's producer David Baron had worked with Lettie on her albums), plus she gained some valuable exposure via the BBC Electric Proms, and in 2010 she was performing on the BBC Introducing... stage at Glastonbury
Then it all seemed to go quiet. Occasional new songs trickled out onto you tube, there were indications that a new album, probably called Other Days, was underway but then everything seemed to grind to a halt. Lettie had to keep what seemed like several day jobs running in order to fund her music, but the daily grind appeared to be robbing her of her passion for songwriting. Her online blog hinted at more personal relationship problems too with the result that a number of completed tracks were then abandoned.
In the autumn of 2010 Lettie spent a couple of weeks with David Baron at his studios in the US
Over the course of 2011 the album was slowly tweaked and teased into shape - a few tracks were dropped as newer improved songs were added and by the end of 2011 David Baron had mixed and mastered the final version. The long and troublesome gestation period has been well worth it, as the new album is surely her strongest collection of songs yet. The title Good Fortune, Bad Weather obliquely hints at the ups and downs endured in trying to get this record finally ready (even the cover photo caused problems as the original photographer turned out to be a con man who ran off with Lettie's hard earned money!) But all those trials are forgotten when the songs kick in, for the album is a wonderful collection of uniformly strong tunes.
These songs (the fourteenth was added when Lettie decided that it would be bad luck to have only thirteen) cover all of Lettie's styles and add considerably more. Her vocals are stronger than ever across the whole collection and her lyrics range from what appear to be personal and intimate to rather more oblique subjects such as technology and robotics.
"Swirl" starts the album off with an amusingly sly lyric having a dig at X Factor and similar talent shows (surely that's Cowell as 'the puppetmaster'?). The irony is that while this song is 100 times better than anything ever produced by a TV talent show, I doubt Lettie would ever get anywhere on X Factor as she's too original to fit into any of their shallow pigeon holes. Thank goodness.
"Lucky" initially sounds like a throwback to an earlier Lettie sound, all simple keyboard and breathless vocals but with every passing line the sound grows and deepens and by the midway point you realise that a full band is playing. This is then topped off by a delightfully playful piano which joins the band and jauntily plays until the end. Such a fun song.
"Bitter"- an incessant acoustic guitar underpins the whole song, but layers of other instruments all but bury it at times. This is a cracking tune with a terrific chorus. Great drumming from Zachary Alford.
"Never Want To Be Alone" is a brilliant dance floor stomper, and would be great to hear on the radio. Interestingly it seems like Lettie and David let their influences run riot on the track. It might just be me but in the ghostly synth intro I can hear the choral fade out of Bowie's "Word On A Wing", the jumpy keyboard melody sounds a bit like "My Sharona" and the heavenly backing vocals on the choruses remind me of Kraftwerk's "Metropolis", but it's all stirred together in a perfect slice of infectious electro pop that manages to sound totally fresh. Possibly the catchiest track on the album, and certainly the most upbeat.
"Sanctuary" is up there with "Mission
"Digital" has some very amusing lyrics which seem to encapsulate Lettie's love of mixing the old and defunct with the modern, shiny and new. 'I've still got VHS, and tapes inside my car', yet everything is going digital... like the brilliant little synth solo in the middle eight which sounds like an updated version of Eno's analogue VCS3 freak out on Roxy Music's "Editions Of You".
Without a pause we move into "Pandora". Truly funky and full of little guitar licks from Danny Blume. Great bass work from Sara Lee. The chorus is beautiful, and the track is the seventh song in a row which would make a very commercial single.
"Fitter" - another one which could easily be a hit, given the chance. Great lyrics and I love the little touches again. The stuttering synths after the choruses are terrific, and the handclaps are lovely. (Another bit of back up to my argument that many songs are immediately improved with the addition of either handclaps or oboes - of course that depends on whether the song is upbeat or melancholy...)
Mind you, violins also really help with an introspective mood. "Mister Lighter" was available last year for a while but didn't have the beautiful strings or vibes that this version has. And both really complete the song. It's a lovely arrangement too, almost like chamber music. Gorgeous vocal, really intimate and up front, as if Lettie is right beside you.
"Aluminium Man" was also up on you tube last year with a funny video. The idea of a robot boyfriend made out of recycled aluminium cans seems both very amusing and very ecologically sound. Much fun to be had from this song with the delightfully robotic synths and the rigidly clattering drum pattern.
A total change of mood with the title track as Lettie solemnly intones "Good Fortune, Bad Weather" over a dub reggae backing, all shuffling beats and heavily echoed rimshots. It's as if we're deep inside the speakers as the whole song takes on a very dreamlike quality. Gentle whistling and half heard guitar only add to the faintly spooky air. I could happily have more of this sort of stuff.
"Come Back" is a rather sad little song of yearning, but again it's full of detail and invention. Based around a pulsing guitar "Come Back" is expanded by some great swirly keyboards as well some incongruously jaunty whistling, which actually works perfectly.
"Crash And Burn" harks back to the sparser sound of "Everyman", but there's nothing wrong with that. Is it perhaps about the crook who ripped off Lettie over the album photos? Seems like it could be... 'can you forgive yourself?' But although the lyrics hint at retribution the song's arrangement is kept fairly light with some gentle piano accompanying the guitar for most of the song, along with some more of David's synths.
"On And On" closes the album on a quiet note. Choral synths start us off before guitars and cheery keyboards join in, with slide guitar taking us to the fade out. It sounds to me as if it could have gone on longer, but the song decided that, once it's achieved what it needed to, it simply chose to fade away. Which again somehow fits perfectly with the sometimes dreamlike quality of many of the tracks.
Basically this one hell of an album. Every song is strong, different from each other, original, inventive, charming, supremely catchy and above all extremely entertaining. It's a great way to spend 45 minutes, and another 45 minutes, and another... Because I'm pretty certain that after one listen almost anyone would be hooked.
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