Girls who like girls who play and perform their own music are going to love Al Start. Go is not her first offering, but it looks as though it could be the release that takes her over to the big time, so listen up.

Go features a sparse, natural and intimate sound with thoughtful arrangements. The album has been put together with what sounds like the minimum of studio trickery – what you see is what you get. Reminiscent of The Beatles in their White Album period (but probably without the hallucinogenics, eh Al?), Go also channels the drowsy ghost of Kirsty MacColl.

The first four tracks run the gamut of 1970s Tom Petty guitar heroics to loose 90s Stone Roses / Primal Scream beats. There’s a Carole King-style ballad and a minor key acoustic guitar track that inhabits some ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ territory.

The variety at the beginning of Go later gives way to more or less wall-to-wall wistful acoustic bliss, although it breaks on ‘Take It Back’ for a big pop sound. If that’s not a single then I’ll eat my hat. In the meantime, the mild melancholy bossa beat of ‘4 Grey Cats’ brings to mind Everything But The Girl at their jazz-pop best.

What Start does best is write the songs. There are some well observed character studies of the Ray Davies school, along with more abstract mood pieces. Her tribute to her sister, Catherine, is both touching and bittersweet.

Britain is experiencing a renaissance of lesbian singer-songwriters at the moment, or maybe they never really went away. Al Start, Belinda O’Hooley, Nat Ripepi and of course Horse and Alex Parks are only a few of the trailblazers. Gone are the days when the genre meant some stringy woman with a sorry guitar wailing about the patriarchy. These babes mean business.

Slick, well-produced and sexy as hell, this is modern music with a heart. It’s the kind of thing that anyone would like – fancy that!

Anyway, enough ranting, Al Start is currently touring with Belinda O’Hooley. Check her website for details, buy this CD and don’t miss them.

Read our interview with Al Start.

Go, by Al Start
Label: Lone Coyote Records

You can get hold of a copy of Go, by visiting Al Start’s website at www.alstart.co.uk.

Al Start On Tour
Al Start joins forces with fellow dyke singer Belinda O'Hooley for an acoustic winter tour in November and December. Their latest CDs, Music Is My Silence and Go, were voted no.1 and no.2 best albums of the year by Diva magazine.

LONDON, Troubadour Club (020 73416321): Tue 22 November
HUDDERSFIELD, Bar 1 Twenty (01484 460839): Thu 24 November
BIRMINGHAM, Glee Club (0870 2415093): Thu 1 December
MACHNYLLETH, Ye Tabernacle (01654 703355): Sat 3 December
MANCHESTER, Life Café (0161 8333000): Tue 6 December
HARTLEPOOL, Studio (01429 424440): Wed 7 December
HEBDEN BRIDGE, Trades Club (01422 845265): Thu 15 December

Get Belinda O'Hooley's CD Music Is My Silence. Buy the CD online and save money to put towards  Life Changes Everything Changes Life by Rachel Mari Kimber.