Single Review: Gabriella Cohen 'Bitter Blues'

Gabriella Cohen is a name that has been popping up a lot lately in the Brisbane music scene, due to the success of her blues garage group The Furrs. What we didn’t know is that Gabriella is also developing solo material on the side, with the recently released Bitter Blues being our first preview. 

Sometimes when an artist releases solo material on the side the gesture can feel a little redundant, but luckily, this hardly the case at all for Gabriella Cohen, with Bitter Blues demonstrating a much more subdued take on the sixties blues revival sound of The Furrs that justifies its solo production. You could say the same song could be performed with the entirety of The Furrs to achieve a greater impact, but then many of the finer details ofBitter Blues would be completely lost. Whilst the style is still blues, the focus has been redirected from the scratchy guitar sounds that define The Furrs to Gabriella’s eloquent voice and the song’s lyrics.

Indeed, with any minimalist style of music the artist’s voice often has to perform at a higher level without the support of a full band; you could even say that when it comes to folk music, the artist’s voice is the main instrument. Thus is the reason why Gabriella’s Bitter Blues is highly effective; her strong Karen-O reminiscent vocals carry the tune all the way to the end, wonderfully layered with dreamy backing vocals.

As for the lyrics, like all good folk tunes, Bitter Blues tells a story. Whilst the idea of the song is nothing new as a brokenhearted love ballad exploring themes of alienation, Gabriella has a knack for wording emotions and ideas with creativity and flair, opening with the killer hook, ‘I sold my soul to a cigarette/my mind’s okay, but my body’s spent’. Her writing style is down to earth and honest, as is the song itself, with a raw and visceral delivery from Gabriella nicely contrasted against a subdued, delicate guitar sound that allows Gabriella’s voice to express the emotions of the song.

Often music can become over-complicated by a convoluted line-up of instruments, effect pedals and a host of other means that can breathe live into an otherwise simple tune. But with Bitter Blues, the simplicity of the song feels fresh; sometimes all you need is a good melody, a nice voice and some meaningful lyrics to create a dynamic song, which is precisely what Bitter Blues is.