While recently visiting my Irish cousins, the O'Lobsters, in Dublin I chanced upon a locally produced album which I thought I might review for these pages. Juliet Turner is a guitarist-singer-songwriter who could arguably be described as acoustic. Leaving aside the tight studio production which is this album, many of her songs would stand alone if performed with just voice and guitar accompaniment. Her strengths are her intelligent lyrics and memorable melodies; dare I say it, my kind of music (eine kleine lobster etc….har, har). Her voice too has been lauded and, although distinctive, could be compared to that of, for instance, Kate Bush or Cyndi Lauper (for Alanis Morissette comparison see Q Magazine review on website). On reading her website it can be seen that she started performing, with just a guitar, and without any great aim or ambition, in (a) small club(s) in Dublin in the early to mid nineties, similar perhaps to many at The Virtually Acoustic Club in London who just 'decide to go and play'. It appears also that her first performances may have preceded any attempts to write songs, not always the way, it could be said, for artists taking to the stage for the first time. This is her second album, the first being 'Lets Here It For The Pizza' in 1996, which I believe is indeed more acoustic.

Songs on the album which stand out include the title track (which is also the opening track), Dr Fell and Narcissi, but perhaps my favourite moment of magic comes in a line taken from the song Theatre For The Broken. Here Turner mentions Dame Street, which for a person (lobster) familiar, yet unfamiliar, with Dublin is immediately recognisable as a focal point of the city, perhaps even the centre of the city, a street constantly changing yet consistent in its presence and contrasting with the newness of the Temple Bar developments close by, within one of which the album was recorded. Burn The Black Suit is an enjoyable and refreshing album and gets the claws-up from me as a worthwhile acquisition.

For information on Juliet Turner go to  www.julietturner.com
Lobby The Lobster can be contacted at  lobbytlobster@hotmail.com

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Juliet Turner - Burn The Black Suit Review ©2002 Lobby The Lobster & Virtually Acoustic
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