Chorusgirl, aka Silvi Wersing has followed up on 2018’s critically acclaimed ‘Shimmer and Spin’ with the new album ‘Collapso Calypso’. Produced by Wersing, it was recorded at Cologne’s Bear Cave Studios.
During the pandemic, Wersing relocated to her native Germany causing Chorusgirl to cease as a band and become a fully-fledged solo project. The newfound creative isolation informs a great deal on the record. There are many swings from dark to light as she wrestles with inner turmoil to find positive outcomes.
‘Don’t Go Back To ‘89’ has the aching sense of repetitive failure that Simon Pegg played so well as Gary King in ‘The World’s End’. In this version, Chorusgirl are the friendship group trying to break through to the protagonist who is unaware and unable to break the cycle. There’s a purity to the guitars not seen since Jeff Buckley’s Grace which, alongside Wersing’s 60s girl group meet Cocteau Twins vocal, make this tumultuous tale a great place to reside.
‘Sleepless In South London’ treads similar water artistically. Lyrically, Wersing explores sleepless nights of self-doubt, regret, and the agony of past actions haunting your consciousness:
‘In the middle of the night, in the back of my mind, a skeleton from a full closet says hi, when my morals are drifting and the shadows are shifting.’
However, sonically, she finds a way to make great alt-pop music still. Vocally residing between Romy and Kate Bush with the guitar power of Glasvegas, Chorusgirl takes despair to the edge of anthemic.
Both tracks are a glorious dichotomy of regressive lyrics and positive sounds. A theme that runs throughout the album’s finest moments. ‘In the Business of Dreams’ rippling guitars and angelic vocals take all the best bits of Pip Blom and The Orielles and make them more melodic.
It is, however, on ‘Minimum Descent Altitude’ and ‘Into Gold’ the album becomes truly interesting. The former sounds like joyous Andy Bell and his live Space Station he toured this year. Shimmering guitars lock horns with Erol Alkan beats to conjure frosty but enriching soundscapes. On ‘Into Gold’ however, Wersing transcends her indie roots into mesmeric pop music. Effortlessly building like a Banarama classic but with post-punks substantive power. The intensity of Gang of Four on the angular riffs is met with Slowdive’s beauty on guitars whilst Wersing’s lyrics explode into a technicolour of defiance and self-doubt.
In what must have been a testing time personally and creatively, Chorusgirl have come out the other side with a piece of art to be cherished!