Ah, but she's a romantic too when
she wants. And Rita's a rock singer always has been.
A voice big enough not to collapse in the company of
the greats and expressive enough not to shout down a
subtler emotion.
(Venue, Issue 10/12/93
- 24/12/93)
Rita
Lynch
Star and Garter, Bristol 25/03/02
'You won't write what they always write, will you?'
Rita Lynch asks, during a break in her intense, issue-filled
set. 'That I've got 'issues'.' Whoops. Er, no. But
she's right really - these songs deal with themes,
obsessions, eternal Big Questions. Love, sex and death,
the classics, all nestle somewhere at the heart of
her lyrics in some ungodly menage a trois. The gutsy
yet often tender delivery, the raw guitar, sometimes
pummeled, sometimes caressed, evoke not the cliched
interiors of relationship limbo, but the cavernous
heaven and hell of desire. Her words are suffused
with religious imagery; 'If this is hell, then give
me sin,' she cries in 'Delight'; 'Cry In The Night'
refers to the 'altar of female flesh'. Hell seems
to dominate heaven in this world, though: the 'beautiful
eyes' from the song of the same name are rhymed with
'tortured skies'; 'Rape me' is the closing repeated
challenge of 'I Am Obsessed'; and the chords are either
on the attack or chime away in plaintive laments or
portentous warning.
The best moment, though, comes from 'Do You Dream',
with its lovely refrain 'When you dream, do you dream
of me?', based around gently insistent strumming and
chords that build to an almost epic feel. Lynch has
been doing this for years, of course, and doesn't
feel the need for banter, even in this most intimate
of settings, but simply proceeds with the assurance
of a seasoned campaigner who knows she holds the audience
gripped.
Matt Davis
Venue Magazine
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