Music Review: Stephen Emmer, International Blue

By Melissa Bratcher

It is difficult to categorize Stephen Emmer’s International Blue (produced by Tony Visconti). It’s an orchestral chamber pop album that showcases some of the finest baritone singers currently in the UK (Ultravox’s Midge Ure, Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, Furlined’s Neil Crossley, and Cousteau’s Liam McKahey). It’s not exactly orchestra music, and it’s not exactly pop, but what it really sounds like is a soundtrack for a moody mid-1960s film, the kind where the actors wear amazingly fashionable clothes in primary colors and stare seriously off into the distance. It’s a fine album to mark the slide from late summer into autumn.

International Blue is a showcase for the singers. The odd part is that some of those singers seem to be doing their best Bowie impersonations. On the heart tugging “Taking Back My Time,” Midge Ure goes full Bowie over the horns and strings and even tosses in what sounds like a Barry Manilow reference lyrically. Glenn Gregory, too, bows to the Bowie on the opening track, the quietly grand “Let The Silence Hold You.” This is not to say that he’s not in fine voice, he most certainly is, but it doesn’t entirely sound like his voice. “Let The Silence Hold You” is down tempo and could easily be the soundtrack for a melancholy German film.

Liam McKahey is a lovely surprise. His pleasing, rich baritone is gorgeous, particularly on the atmospheric “Blown Away,” which should be the next Bond theme. His “Song For A Deserted Wife” who was “on a diet most of her life” is captivating. A song about the gossip and judgment of the townsfolk and their “forked parochial tongues” (such a great turn of phrase) who disapprove of a divorced woman, it has upbeat choruses with a sparkling trumpet and turns to a minor key lament on the verses.

“Sleep For England,” sung by Neil Crossley, is poetic, with evocative lyrics and a marvelous descending piano line. His voice is an acquired taste, a bit nasal and affected. Glenn Gregory’s “Break In The Weather” is lush and seductive. His voice has mellowed gloriously with age. “Untouchable” is dark and dramatic with elegant piano and slashes of strings. When Gregory effortlessly reaches the high notes, his voice is open and impeccable.

Though Stephen Emmer’s name is on International Blue, he was kind enough to let the vocalists be the focus of the music. It’s admirable. International Blue, though nodding to the film soundtracks of the ’60s, isn’t retro. It’s modern and evocative, certainly a record that needs to be discovered.

International Blue was released on September 16 and can be purchased from Stephen Emmer’s website.