"Lucia's Method" by Barnabas
Review
Reasonably hot on the heels of her ‘Your Body' EP, Phoebe Court has dropped another release under the Barnabas artistic identity. It's called "Lucia's Method".
If that onion has a couple of layers already, then as Lucia seems to be another name for the same person, a third could well be in play.
Given that she says "this isn't really a song" there are potential problems writing about it in a music magazine. Luckily (though perhaps not as respectfully as I'd like to be) I disagree: it sounds like a song to me.
So what does Phoebe consider it to be? "Think of it more as an example of Lovely Lucia's healing method: useful for getting things off the chest, developing self-awareness, and working through your inner joys and pains alike!" And it is that as well.
It's a jolly ukulele song with an extended slide whistle solo: maybe if George Formby dropped the innuendo and took up a career as a therapist he might have written songs vaguely like this, though possibly not with quite the same breezy encouraging silliness quotient. (Actually that mustn't be taken as flippancy in his direction: I am not aware of any British musician nor his wife standing up to Apartheid as directly as George & Beryl Formby did. But I digress).
At any rate the triple aspect Phoebe/Barnabas/Lucia seems to be enjoying herself: the song (or not-song) lasts seven minutes. Not that this is problematic: you get to hear plenty of happiness which is no bad thing. Is it improvised at any point? That's tricky to say.. certainly there is a spirit of spontaneity at play but the messages seem worked out and they are more confidently articulated than pure improvisation would normally manifest. I think it's probably a stream of consciousness in terms of what you hear, but one informed & infused with seriously meant notions in her head before starting.
I think you'll enjoy it though & it ought to lift your mood should that be required.
