Friday 25 November 2022 02:11 AM ADRIAN THRILLS: Sophie Ellis-Bextor's recipe to turn your kitchen into a ... trends now
SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR: Kitchen Disco: Live At The London Palladium (Cooking Vinyl)
Rating: ***
Verdict: Quarantine Queen comes alive
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS: The Boy Named If (Alive At Memphis Magnetic) (EMI)
Rating: ***
Verdict: Raw revamps and classy covers
WEYES BLOOD: And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop)
Rating: ****
Verdict: Lavish torch songs
Sophie Ellis-Bextor's live-streamed kitchen discos added some much-needed cheer to the 2020 lockdown.
Helped by her musician husband Richard Jones, who filmed the chaotic Friday night house parties on his phone, she donned a sequined catsuit and sang her heart out as the couple's five young sons wandered in and out of the scene. She has since turned the concept into a brand — and brought the same populist touch to the stage when she swapped the comfort of her London home for the commotion of the live arena on this year's Kitchen Disco tour. Her first live album, out today on double CD and digitally, recaptures the feel-good spirit.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor's persona, part prim Sunday School teacher, part saucy Butlin's Redcoat, is infectious
'Did anybody else impulse buy a horse during lockdown? Nah? Just me,' she says at the start of a Palladium gig from which the bulk of these 24 songs are drawn. The trusty steed, it turns out, is a life-sized plastic horse that doubles as a stage prop, but it's still an unusual purchase.
Her persona, part prim Sunday School teacher, part saucy Butlin's Redcoat, is infectious. 'Maybe I'll loosen up my dressing gown,' she quips. 'Who knows where the night will take us?' Where it takes us is on a career-spanning ride that runs from her glorious early solo hits Murder On The Dancefloor and Take Me Home (A Girl Like Me) through to this summer's Hypnotized, a single made with electro artist Wuh Oh. More importantly, it also includes a romp through such floor-filling classics as Abba's Dancing Queen and Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody.
In a bid to recreate the free-for-all essence of her live-streams, the tour saw her accompanied by a wheel of fortune, spun to decide the next number. A stunt once employed by Elvis Costello — his was the Spectacular Spinning Songbook — it throws up versions of Lionel Richie's All Night Long and Madness's Our House.
The show sometimes verges on mirrorball karaoke, but there are moments where Sophie underlines her solid clubland credentials: a mid-concert medley of hits from the late 1990s and early 2000s includes a cover of Moloko's Sing It Back and her own Groovejet (If This Ain't Love), the song that famously pipped Victoria Beckham to No.1 in 2000.
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