Baby Animals www.myspace.com/babyanimals
“It means The Great Silence,” Suze DeMarchi clarifies, for those who don’t speak spaghetti western. “It seemed appropriate. It’s a soft, quiet, dreamy kind of record. And it’s been a long time.”
13 years, in fact, since the last Baby Animals album, and 8 since Suze’s exquisite solo record, Telelove. It’s apt that this highly anticipated return combines the tenderness and maturity of the latter with so many of the classic songs that made Baby Animals THE rock’n‘roll success story of the early ’90s.
Early Warning, Rush You, Painless and One Word were the first shots in a rock radio revolution in the year that followed. Here they’re transformed beyond belief. The years have leached unheard variations and subtleties from their bones, a vindication of the kind of songcraft that defies fashion.
“Liberation have been asking me to do this for a couple of years,” Suze says. “I wasn’t interested ‘cause I had this rock album in my head – as usual – and besides I was busy being mum. Finally I thought if Justin was into it that could be different. So I called the guys to see if they were up for it.”
Producer Justin Stanley had recently been impressed by Suze’s new demos. Stitch and U Still Need Me, a co-write with INXS’s Andrew Farriss, would become her first new recordings with Dave Leslie (guitar), Eddie Parise (bass) and Frank Celenza (drums) since 1994.
“We did it all in Justin’s backyard in LA,” says Suze. “He has a little studio full of quirky instruments he’s collected over the years, odd stuff lying around. It came together pretty easily, I can tell you: no stress, have fun, laid back. When you pull those songs apart, you find all kinds of stuff.”
Stuff like the ethereal melodic counterpoints in Early Warning, the southern- rock roots of Rush You, the hypnotic Indian drone in Painless (with Satnam Ramgotra on tablas) and a gorgeous, blues piano lilt in Make It End, with Eric Clapton sideman Doyle Bramhall on slide guitar.
From there to Submarine and Satellite – a pair of especially memorable songs from Suze’s Telelove album – the golden thread remains unchanged and unmistakable: a voice with a unique combination of ball-breaking power and sensuous intimacy that never fails to stop you in your tracks.
With that rock record in her head still determined to be heard, and Baby Animals tour dates imminent at last, Il Grande Silenzio represents not just an inspirational new work in its own right, but a clear road ahead.
“This is great way to reaffirm what we’ve done and what we have,” says Suze. “It has been difficult, especially when I did the solo record, but I’ve always been a rock’n‘roll girl at heart. There was never any other band for me.”
