The Adjacent Impossible by Million Pebble Beach Review
Million Pebble Beach consists of singer/songwriter Claire Baker and her piano. This collection of twelve original songs has bubbled up through her activity in the vibrant local music scene in the seaside city of Portsmouth.
I first listened to most of these songs performed live at Portsmouth’s 2019 Victorious Festival and then eagerly went back to hear more at smaller local venues. The songs are a magical tour de force of common experience and classical archetypes but revisited each time from her own original and personal perspective.
For this review I knew I wanted to enjoy these songs in a way that invokes the special intimacy of her live performance and I chose to sit on the beach and watch the waves while listening. This is music which warrants its own special venue.
Claire revels in magical narrative and weaves her storytelling into haunting harmony and memorable melody. She delivers with a deceptively simple and natural vocal style which stays with you as a collection of playful silvery earworms swimming around in that part of us that hears.
I don’t want to offer a dissection or analysis of the individual songs here, I think it is enough that like any good art these songs transcend our individual and collective experiences and create a personal dialogue with the listener. By all means buy the album, but seize any opportunity to hear Million Pebble Beach perform live. Once in a blue moon you get to hear something very special and this is it.
So dance around the elephant, talk to a giant, sit under the stars and maybe carry a dog biscuit in case you meet Miles.
For mote info, visit www.millionpebblebeach.co.uk.
