By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

TRACKLIST: A Thousand Orchids; Breaking The Circle; Until The Wheels Fall Off; Everything Is Sweet; Lost In The Sunshine; Tokyo; Beyond The Universe; He’s A Dreamer; Reflections; Hearing In Colour; Broken Toy; We’ve Been Watching You

We’ve only ever been to Tokyo once and it was so different to anywhere we’ve been before or since that it was extremely disorientating while being fascinating at the same time.

• Read on for reasons including how and where to see Ellis Bextor on tour in 2023

Album title Hana is the Japanese word for ‘blossom’ and the material here was inspired by a trip to Japan before Covid but also lockdown infused the dreamlike atmosphere of much of the material and album opener A Thousand Orchids sets the mood perfectly.

Debut single Breaking The Circle was a song of the week for us back in March and we described it as ‘more upbeat than we were expecting and lyrically champions daring: ‘Here we go into the light of the great unknown … Come with me and we can change what the end might be … And when the morning comes will everything feel the same?’

It’s Ellis Bextor’s 3rd solo album with Ed Harcourt, 1st new material since 2016 and our favourite track is the laidback elegance of Lost In The Sunshine, perfectly fitting for a June release, with its aspirational chorus of: ‘Lost In The Sunshine, Margaritas by the riverside, We’re gonna let the hours slide and keep the good times going.’

It’s the perfect relaxing summer anthem after a period where people were locked down and socialising was difficult.

Ellis Bextor played south London’s Mighty Hoopla festival at Brockwell Park (pictured) last week and we’ve seen her a lot live since lockdown not least for the Kitchen Discos for which she has become best known including a Palladium gig.

We said then: ‘We’ve caught her many times live, including when she fronted indie band Theaudience at The Wedgewood Rooms, in Southsea, Portsmouth in the 90s, but we’ve never seen her in her element like this or with her fans engaging so joyously and uproariously with her.’

The material on Hana is more thoughtful, personal and less instant than the lockdown covers for which she has become so beloved and it will be interesting to see how she reflects this in her live shows.

It’s important to show she’s an artist with this new material and we expect this month’s sold out Lafayette show in London to draw very heavily on this album.

However, it might not feature quite so heavily in the Christmas Kitchen Disco tour she plays this winter including a 5 December Eventim Apollo gig.

As she launched this album, she was asked on BBC Breakfast about whether she would like to represent the UK at Eurovision and she said she would like to write the song rather than perform it.

It’s a bold decision and, while we don’t think there’s anything quite Eurovision-worthy on Hana, we do think that she could be involved in something quite special for the Contest if she chose to put her pen to it.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Sophie Ellis Bextor Tickets
• Have you heard this or any other Sophie Ellis Bextor albums? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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