Lady Sings It Better

7 August 2014 | 3:20 pm | Liz Giuffre

Cabaret on a Sunday night with a minimal budget. It was a big ask, but damn these girls answered the call. The singing quartet ‘Ladies’, aka Maeve Marsden, Libby Wood, Chandra Franken and Anna Martin Keys, take songs written and performed by men and re-perform them with some genre- and gender-bending. The point is to get to know the male psyche better and the results are fab.

Number one – the catchier the tune, the dodgier the lyrics. Number two – see number one. Seventy-odd minutes covering several decades of ‘man’ songs – with particular props to the sheer imagination of some of the arrangements and mix decisions – were entertaining and frightening all at once. There’s the now well-circulated ‘less that consensual’ pop genre that sees your Robin Thickes and Ushers get a go, as well as the ‘stalker-sub pop’ of The Police, and a strange interlude that connects a series of ‘animal’ songs in ways creepier than most people have really considered. But to just assume the show simply points and laughs at bad grammar and worse judgement doesn’t do the performances justice.

The lyrics of most mainstream music are pretty crappy, but to make a point that is funny enough and also with just enough preachy-ness, you need to be able to fucking sell it beyond just pointing that out. There wasn’t a dropped note or syllable left to chance, and the ‘animations’ of the four-piece were gloriously literal at times. As well, special kudos should be given to the understated but also tight-as three-piece band (the keyboards player, Hayden Barltrop, who delightfully also giggled along with the audience at the conclusion of several of the songs; the bass player, Hannah James, scaling different styles with ease, and the drummer, Lauren Allison, who was, simply, cool).

The group is now five years old, several different members in, Edinburgh Fest alumni and not entirely without precedent (‘80s feminist fabulous comics Denise Scott and Linda Gibson also did a similar thing), but a great comedic cover version shows off more than just what’s been done before. Yes, it was hilarious, and yes, the ladies were laughing at the music they played rather than with it, but some of that business deserves to be pulled out, roughed up and have its lines blurred, as it were. Can’t wait for the next one.

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