Lissy Taylor – Your Girl Review

Plenty of independent spirits are knocking around the circuit. Always have, always will. Few will make it; others will toil in irrelevancy while the few dedicated followers cling to their every release. Whatever the case it is not often quality which rises to the top. Sometimes it is the lucky. Part of careerism is luck, a chance to move and brush the right hands. Whatever helps get to the next step. But one thing is clear for all the harshness of the live music scene, the independent investigators of it, and those who are rallying to the smaller houses. There is a shift in lighter, indie rock subdued by the charts some decades ago. We clamour for what we remember, and it is not often the right choice. But Lissy Taylor does well to present a turn of contemporary form in a genre as old as electric with the latest single Your Girl.  

Clapping and stomping their way through the start of this latest release comes an indie rock essential. Those broad guitar tones and the moving vocal performance are part and parcel of the Lissy Taylor experience. Decent work all around, a nice revival of the tones so many audiences are clamouring for. Taylor has capitalised well on the boom of nostalgia for those who inspired her and turned those often lazy, easy-to-access guitar riffs into well-layered and interesting turns of form. Emotionally charged lyrical components are what the genre has been missing for some time – this is what happens when we look back on the crumbling foundations and not to where the genre can go should it be moved to pastures new. Taylor and the likes of bdrmm or Picture Parlous is what the scene needs.  

Wide moves from each artist have seen a dissolution of their talents and a trip into the likes of shoegaze or glam rock, whatever the case each has found their new place in rising rock or indie-adjacent scenes. For Taylor, it seems the straight and narrow is the best for her, instrumentally speaking. Your Girl has an intensity and finality to it, an expression of truth which is lacking in the genre. Taylor has an abundance of it – a sincerity to her music and her style which brings out the best in her lyrical opportunities. Head through to the other side as Taylor calls for. Promises of an out-of-this-world experience are the opportune charms of someone who thinks they can provide a new experience for the seasoned pessimist.  

But Taylor has made waves before, and Your Girl will be another crash against the front. Steady guitar work and strong lyrics. It is the Taylor standard. The bar is heightened once more. Taylor is leading a rock revival charge not just because she is a new voice for the genre, but because she is one of the few interesting artists at work in it. Straight-shooting, guitar-led rock music. Endure the failures to get to the high points of the genre. A new, hopeful wave for the scene is coming in the same way it did for contemporary acoustic folk music under Katie Spencer and Chris Brain’s purview. Taylor will no doubt lead a charge of new and exciting guitar music – Your Girl is just the start.