Charlie Franklin has shared Patchwork of Colours, the lead single from her self-titled debut EP, due 27th May. The London-based singer-songwriter made the record with producer Natalie Wildgoose — whose own Rural Hours EP we reviewed earlier this month — and the production carries a similar instinct for analogue intimacy: guitar and vocals tracked entirely on first takes, the tape recorder’s gentle hiss left audible in the mix.
Patchwork of Colours opens on lilting guitar and piano in a register that nods to Laura Marling, with the Americana inflection of Kate Wolf. Franklin reaches for natural imagery to render emotional unavailability — a lover figured as a branch bent by the breeze, elusive as the direction of rain on a cloudless day — before pivoting to the title line as a self-claiming counterweight. The song bookends itself: an opening question about looking into the lover’s soul is mirrored, in the final verse, by Franklin offering hers in return. As she explains:
“Patchwork of Colours was a response to superficiality. I was dating someone who just felt so guarded, like they had no willingness to see my depth or to share their own. Someone shut off from tenderness and vulnerability. Who wants life to be this hedonistic show where interactions are transactional and people are for their pleasure. This song was a very softly written ‘fuck you’ to them.”
Stream: https://emubands.ffm.to/patchworkofcolours
The EP arrives off the back of early backing from Rough Trade, Hard of Hearing, Far Out, Still Listening, LOUD WOMEN and BBC Introducing Bristol, and lands ahead of a headline show at London’s Morocco Bound Bookshop.
Upcoming live shows:
8 MAY // London, Morocco Bound Bookshop (Headline)
15 MAY // London, Ace and Eights (supporting Alanna Matty)