Alice Costelloe’s ‘Move on with the Year’ at London’s Servant Jazz Quarters
The singer released her debut album last month.
Photo: Izzy Mcaleavy
Alice Costelloe debuts her first album Move on with the Year with an intimate concert at Servant Jazz Quarters, a characterful nook of East London. This collection of ten songs is a glimpse into Costelloe’s cold notes of nostalgia and folky rhythmic artistry.
The title track, Move on With the Year, tells us all we need to know about Costelloe’s musical insight on the passage of time. Too Late Now is a particular standout, touching on the inevitability of deterioration. Costelloe sings of chapels and hospitals, both places where pleading for miracles is undeniably present.
Lyrics “Stop praying for a miracle, it’s too late now” and “Delete the message, move on with the year” parch listeners in the seat of the bleak truth. Costelloe’s ability to colour simple lyricism with the paint of her musical ability flourishes in this album. This is due to the raw and layered instrumentation, which is further highlighted in her live performance. The overall starkness of her insight is that there is not much we can do about people and places passing, except to move on.
This bleakness is dampened by the next track, Damned If You Do, where the chapel Costelloe has just prayed in is now a scene of her friends walking down the aisle. Marriage is another pressing matter of time chasing us into change. This song is a musical shift for the latter half of the album, where the sonic backbone is fuller in percussion and swing. The sweeter flavours in this song bring out Costelloe’s vocal palette of alternative indie with a folk undertone.
A personal favourite from Costelloe’s set is If I Could Reach You, touching on the same inevitability and what-ifs heard in earlier tracks. The electric guitar and drums have a harder kick than the previous melancholy. Costelloe uses the unsettlement of minor chords to sink into the dirty sadness of missing someone.
The three words “You’re never there” are used to wind down the last minute and a half of the song, where they are sung in solitude over and over. The repeated realisation of these words is a roundabout of sound, which seems as though it could plough on forever. Once again, Costelloe digs up the depth of these feelings and lays them out on the table in a way that is stark and personal. These bleak themes are only enhanced by the live performance, where words so personal are enriched by the close proximity of the audience.
Costelloe plays with a band of two (Mattie Vant takes on keys and backing vocal duties), bringing the album’s raw themes to the stage with the same intensity as in the studio recording, enhancing the live listening experience.
The album is sealed off with Is There Something (Goodbye), where the previous nostalgia is put away with the painful acceptance of saying goodbye. The last words Costelloe sings before the strung-out white noise that finishes her set are particularly haunting. “I don’t want to go back to the saddest house on the street”, finalises the desolate ending to things that have hung around for too long. The final lyrics of “Goodbye” repeated four times seal her fate of forceful acceptance as a way to escape the pain of change.
Up-and-coming artist Alice Costelloe bears musical similarities to Wolf Alice with a lyrical resemblance to other alternative female singers, such as Billie Marten and Lucy Dacus. Costelloe is bound to reach similar acclaim with the raw and gloomy tones of this album.
Photos by Izzy Mcaleavy.
