Gemini Girl: The Complete Hush Recordings (Deluxe Edition)

高水準アシッド・フィメール・ソフトロックとして人気を博すグループJUSTINE。1970年の唯一作『JUSTINE』は何度か再発され、そのたびに再評価されています。そのJUSTINEは二人の女性ヴォーカリストをフィーチャーしていることで知られていますが、その片方が本作の主人公であるローリー・スタイバースです。

ローリー・スタイバースはテキサス出身ですが、60年代後半からロンドンで学生生活を送っており、JUSTINEに加入。バンドが分解した以後1971年に『SPILT MILK』1973年に『THE CHOCOLATE KID』という2枚のソロ作品を残しています。その艶のある声と自在なフレージング、楽曲の完成度はまさにジュディ・シルに比肩するクオリティとしてマニアックなSSW好きに愛好されてきましたが、今回その両作品に未発表曲を追加したコンプリート録音集がリリースされます。

リンダ・パーハクス、カレン・ダルトン、マーゴ・ガーヤンなど、繰り返しファンを生んできたフィメールSSW再発の流れに確実に一石を投じるリリース!これをきっかけに新世紀の定番となる可能性を大いに秘めた最高の内容です。老若男女問わず、音楽好きならチェックしてほしい!

Sometimes forgotten albums are obscure for a reason. Whether they were odd to begin with or were poorly promoted, there is a reason for their obscurity. Other times, as with the sole two 1970s albums by singer/songwriter Laurie Styvers compiled on 2023s Gemini Girl: The Complete Hush Recordings, their obscurity belies a deeply bittersweet and lushly realized body of work. Born in Texas, Styvers (who had moved to Europe where her father worked in the oil industry) was a teenager at the American School of London when she joined burgeoning psych-folk vocal ensemble Justine. While that group was short-lived, she soon embarked on a solo career, collaborating with producer/songwriter Hugh Murphy on 1971s Spilt Milk. Full of sun-dappled, late-afternoon folk and AM pop, the album showcased Styvers warm, ginger-sweet vocals, often double-tracked in the Carpenters style. The album failed to make much of an impact stateside, where Styvers was attending the University of Colorado, but a single -- the beguiling "Beat the Reaper" with its breezy nods to hippie country life ("spend the day with MDA in a field by the pond") -- caught on in England. She returned to London, and in 1973 delivered The Colorado Kid, an equally enrapturing production that found her leaning into a jazzy, soft rock vibe, as exemplified by the lilting "Oh Colorado." Along with "Beat the Reaper," there is much to love on Gemini Girl, including "Pigeons" with its Harry Nilsson-esque carnival atmosphere, the gauzy orchestral pop of "Seasonal Blues, and the yearning feminist housewife anthem "Eat Your Cornflakes." For whatever reason, over the intervening years Styvers backed away from her career, eventually running a kennel and animal sanctuary with her father before dying way too young from hepatitis in 1998 at the age of 46. While her pop career barely had a chance to blossom, the emotions and lyricism of her work as featured on Gemini Girl stand as a strong evocation of youthful plans delayed, loves lost, and the ever-changing nature of life. ~ Matt Collar