Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth – Utopian Ashes (Third Man)

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Forty one years ago Joy Division charted the emotions of the failing end of a relationship in their classic song Love Will Tear Us Apart and that same sad territory is mapped in Utopian Ashes by Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth.

On their first album together Gillespie and Beth use country and chamber pop to musically frame a coherent set of lyrics about a couple whose relationship is in trouble. The result is a mature look at the challenges of the end to a relationship in a satisfying suite of songs.

The album continues both artists development. In Gillespie’s journey from being The Jesus And Mary Chain drummer to primary lyricist singer for Primal Scream he has often shown an interest in duets and the country rock template used here. Beth, who was first known for her intense vocals in the post punk band Savages, has explored a variety of styles in her collaborations with Damon Albarn, Julian Casablancas and Tindersticks and on her 2020 solo album To Love is to Live.

Gillespie and Beth first met in 2015 when they performed on stage with Suicide at the Barbican in London. The following year they recorded together Primal Scream’s cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s Some Velvet Morning. In 2018 they had progressed to writing and recording this set of songs with a band of their long time collaborators, in Beths’ case, her life and musical partner, Johnny Hostile who plays bass, and there are three members of Gillespie’s long terms band, Primal Screen, Andrew Innes, guitar, Martin Duffy, piano and Darrin Mooney, drums.

The opening song Chase It Down drops us straight into the drama of the situation, the first lines of are, “ Time slips away Day after day And I don’t even love you Anymore.” These lyrics are sung by Gillespie over a mid tempo strummed guitar, sweeping strings and steady drum beat.  During this song the weary vocals of Gillespie’s verses are traded with Beth’s more urgent choruses where she asks “Who is gonna come and save us now?” and “Show me if you really want this love.”

Chase it Down is followed by the slow waltz of English Town. The tinkling piano by Duffy, snare shuffle by Mooney and pronounced bass notes by Hostile create a desolate feel. The lyrics sung by Gillespie paint a picture of a tough and uncaring place, “Poundland’s shut, bombed-out pubs Feral Kids on zombie drugs.”

The powerful Remember We Were Lovers is a slow country ballad with synthesisers, drums and horns. The lyrics explore how the couple are emotionally apart and if they are ready to take the final step. Gillespie sings sad intimate lines, “We may sleep together But really we’re alone” and more dramatically, “We’re martyrs in a marriage In a war we’re gonna lose.” Over rising strings Beth’s lyrics ask Gillespie’s character to reflect on the precariousness of the position they are in, “Do you stand like this,….. At the edge of a cliff.” This powerful performance is one of the highlights of the album.

In the acoustic country soul of Your Heart Will Always Be Broken Beth’s character reminds her partner “You did it before” and Gillespie admits his shortcomings “I was crippled with fear…I treated you unkind And now I regret it.” The music drops down and rises up to capture the mood of a couple wrestling with emotions about themselves and each other.

Stones of Silence has a relatively upbeat feel until it takes a darker turn when Gillespie sings “Bitter winds Find us Blow us apart.” The song ends with a death rattle of a shaker and the words “Desire is a hunger That murders the heart.”

Gillespie sings over the dramatic piano chords and pained strings in You Don’t Know What Love Is. At first he seems reflective and sincere, “You think you know someone” but he ends with the accusatory and spiteful, “You’ll never know What love is.”

Gillespie’s spoken words about this black dog years lead into You Can Trust Me Now, a ghostly piano led country singalong on which the singers trade verses and harmonise on the chorus. Beth sings quietly that he was ”Like a sailor out on shore leave Too wrecked to find his ship” who “….turned into someone I didn’t know” thereby undercutting the claims Gillespie makes when he sings the title of the song.

These conflicting views of their relationship’s decay continues on the similarly themed Living a Lie which uses lush strings and strummed guitar to create a gentle swaying rhythm. Gillespie muses in general philosophical terms about why they should seperate “The things we do To each other Is breaking our hearts It’s a shame”. Beth’s response is more direct and clear about who is at fault  “You stay out late Never come home for days” and “You’ve put a wound Where the trust once was And now, you try and shift the blame.” It is no surprise that at the end of the song Beth concludes “it’s over.”

Sunk in Reverie is Gillespie’s post break up song and reminds me of Primal Screams comedown ballads. The strummed guitars, picked bass notes and occasional piano notes gives the music a morning after feel as he sings of people he meets at parties but does not feel any real connection to them, “Hello, how are you? There’s no one there.” And of course that reflects that he is newly single and on his own.

The album is much more enjoyable and listenable than you would expect from the subject matter.  The music is mostly sad and melancholy using lush strings, country style slide guitar, economical bass notes and jazz piano for emphasis. The songs that use their different voices to clearly present the shifting perspectives of the characters are especially effective at conveying that this is not a clear cut situation. The album does not have the intensity of the Joy Division song but it paints authentic character sketches of two people struggling to navigate the end of their relationship.

John Bradbury

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John Bradbury
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