Rachael Dadd - Kaleidoscope

Rachael Dadd

Kaleidoscope

Memphis Industries

14 October 2022

The word kaleidoscope is one that, when applied to music, calls to mind that period at the end of the sixties when everything exploded with colour as psychedelics, freedom, and creativity led to music of limitless possibility, spilling out of and cross-pollinating with every genre and style around. I doubt this era inspired Rachael Dadd in naming her new album ‘Kaleidoscope’ because she is far too forward-thinking an artist to be looking back. That said, it does seem to be a very apt name for the record because these eleven songs don’t sit within the confines of a structure, they unfold and bloom into things of great beauty. As Rachael herself sings on the final song ‘Join The Dots,’ “there’s more than one way to travel”, and she proves it by gliding through her own music without repetition or routine.

The album cover art, which Rachael embroidered herself, is inspired by kaleidoscopic patterns, and those colourful geometric organisms could equally symbolise her music flying out into a clear blue sky. Dadd has spoken of her delight at finally, post-lockdown, getting back together with her fellow musicians in a room and tasting that magic of human interaction. It is a magic that she rightly believes has been captured in this colourful collection, noting how whilst “music and the sky can be boundless, they are also containers to preserve the very best things. Here on ‘Kaleidoscope’ they are vessels for truth and love.”

The constant grain of the collection is Rachael’s dreamy voice, but all around it, among the plentiful highlights, all are diverse and freeform. ‘Children Of The Galaxy’ emerges from the stars above, offering a spacious floating ambience that sets the scene for the deep journey to follow. Sonically Dadd has the range among her collaborators to go where the songs take her, be it via chilling synth punctuations on ‘Moon Sails’ that brilliantly evoke the icy coldness of the moon or the sweeping violin waves on ‘Ox’ that offer perhaps the most identifiably folk sounds on the whole album.

‘River Spirit’ is spilling over with musical ideas and progressions. It begins with pounding piano waves, reminiscent of the Waterboys on ‘Old England’ but does not even settle into that groove for a minute before the sound collapses into some jazz chords ahead of the rhythm jumping on board and sailing the tune off into a whole new exhilarating direction. Such restless energy does mean that songs rarely settle, although Rachael can do pop chorus hooks when the desire takes her, just listen to one of the album’s most immediate songs, ‘Heads Down’, and the way she sings, “I should keep my head down, down, down, down” over and over while the music spins like a top with sweet sonics flying out in all directions. ‘Kaleidoscope’ really does live up to its title; it is an album that possesses so much nuance in those deep grooves, making it a potential career-best for an artist with an admirably understated excellence.