Waterson
Dada LP

Colin Waterson, former pro ballet dancer, claims it was boredom that drove him to escape Broadway and the chorus of ‘Swan Lake’, though ‘Dada’ implies he didn’t get out without a few emotional scars too. The next step was to plunge himself back into his other gift, music. Waterson started out as a duo and made something of a name with a drum and bass cover of the classic spiritual ‘Motherless Child’.

‘Dada’ starts out at a similar place of bluesy reflection. ‘Sun is Shining’ is very Bob Marley ‘On the Dock of the Bay’, though it isn’t his (or Otis’s) song of the same name. Then the electronic backing kicks in. ‘Cool Connection’ dabbles with Faithlessesque platitudes but is still bouncy and engaging. It’s really a warm-up for the dark stuff contained deeper within this album. ‘White Whispers’ shares the same boppy style, but instead of “Just be yourself / Don’t be superficial” there’s a bleak narrative of seduction, abuse and abandonment.

Interspersed with the anger, when Waterson gets tender he evokes Moby’s ‘Porcelain’ (a fine song before it was used to advertise everything from pop socks to parrot cages – 1999 Crossover Smash Ed). Vocally, both the husky low tones and high-register keening are reminiscent of David McAlmont, the finest torch singer of his generation. Songs like ‘Can’t Go Back’ cut to the quick with a sense of loss and exile, and ‘Every Shade of Wrong’ is just luscious, its melody opening out like a flower.

And so it goes, oscillating between bruised soul and stompy assertiveness. Something’s being worked out here. ‘Dada’, the song, is a worthy centrepiece. It erupts from the preceding track, the inconsequential ‘Momentum’, and fizzes with both fury and self-examination. After that, the storm seems to blow out, as though Colin’s found his closure. ‘Tomorrow’s Been’ still has some tart observations, but also peace and resolution, and ‘Give Me Love’ is a simple, lovely paean to the beauty and redeeming power of a new lover, or even a deity.

It ends there. It’s a good place to end. ‘Dada’ is quite a journey.