Cracked Picture Frames, the bristling full-length debut of American-born,
London-based songwriter Robert Chaney, opens with Black Eyed Susan - a scene of
domestic violence sung from the point of view of an ashamed abuser - and sets
off ticking through a further nine songs; chronicling assaults, traffic
accidents (two, in fact), and all kinds of heartbreak.
"The record almost didn't happen," recalls
Robert. "After moving from Florida to London, I didn't know anyone. I
thought I was going to have to get into the open mic grind. So I went to one
and showed up late and they put me on last." But it was on the strength of
this performance that Robert was approached by producer Ken Brake (The
Clientele, Louis Philippe), and the two started working in Ken's London studio,
recording dozens of songs over a number of months. Most of the songs on the
final record are first or second takes.
The negative space afforded by the spartan
guitar-and-voice arrangements serves to bring the lyrical content into
hyperfocus, and it is here the 33-year-old truly differentiates himself from
his peers. “There was this great DVD rental place around the corner from me on
Brick Lane,” Robert explains, “I started to get into old foreign films, art
stuff. I started to think like a director or screenwriter. How to maintain
tension, how to write from a character.” He pauses for a moment, and is then
quick to add, “It’s not all exercises in storytelling, though. There’s a lot of
personal stuff on there.”
This tension between love song and story song
provides much of the motivating force behind the album. ‘The Cyclist’ is equal
parts tragic romance and cliffhanging thriller, as a couple deal with the
aftermath of a hit-and-run car accident. ‘The Ballad of Edward and Lisa’,
written about a former co-worker of Robert's, offers a sly critique of
organized religion as the song masquerades as an old-fashioned blood-soaked murder
ballad.
Though he is still a relative newcomer, the past two years have seen Robert Chaney become one of the most talked-about performers on the London singer-songwriter scene, and with Cracked Picture Frames, he proves that the titular shattered glass isn’t the only thing about this record that’s razor-sharp.
See the video for 'Patch It Up'.
Robert plays The Railway Tavern, 2 St Jude Street,
Dalston, London on Thursday 5 March.
