Amelia Coburn
Elgar Room, Royal Albert Corridor, London
24 October 2025
Debut album Between the Moon and the Milkman established Amelia Coburn as a voice to hear out for in people circles. With a brand new single and work on a second album underway, Steve Morgan finds a voice and stay drive to be reckoned with
People. It may be such a deceptive, reductive four-letter phrase: a straitjacket into which performers are zipped quick, whereas audiences sagely nod appreciation over pints of cask ale.
Rising star of the style Amelia Coburn might look bookish, however just like the style on which her musical foundations are solidly constructed, appearances may be not solely misleading, however completely deceptive. Coburn’s ‘folk-goth’ world is considered one of dazzling and flickering lights, the place a lot lurks unseen within the corners and shadows. You’d take her on at your peril. In the course of the course of a bewitching hour and 1 / 4 on the Royal Albert Corridor’s Elgar Room – Erykah Badu’s gig throughout the hall in the principle auditorium lends the air an additional nip of oddness – she delights her personal sell-out viewers with a profitable stagecraft and self-deprecating method that masks some correct musical chops.
It’s a expertise severe sufficient to pique the respective curiosity of Paul Weller and Heaton – she lends the previous her arresting vocal skills on a stripped-back model of Mountain’s One Final Chilly Kiss, featured on his current covers album, Discover El Dorado. You’ll be able to simply spot the fault line that results in Heaton, too – Coburn’s incisive lyrics and acutely noticed vignettes, notably on the pleasant Dublin Serenade, the story of 24 hours spent within the truthful metropolis, Leprechaun Museum and all, should not all that removed from Heaton’s musical postcode. Tonight’s present is, she says, in all probability her greatest but. “I’m cacking myself, I’m not going to lie” – she laughs after opener When The Tide Rolls In, additionally the lead-off monitor from her album. It’s an prompt icebreaker in plush environment, much more formal than your conventional circuit gig. That studio debut, the enigmatically titled Between the Moon and the Milkman – sympathetically produced by ex-Coral guitarist Invoice Ryder-Jones – has gathered traction since its launch in March final 12 months: all however three of tonight’s 12 songs come from it.
Backed by a three-piece band of keys, bass and drums – particular point out right here for drummer Mike Kitching, having fun with his first outing in Coburn’s crew – the quartet mesh completely. Well mannered the place required, in addition they escape with ease into the rockier moments, notably on the superb Sleepy City. Although the music is a heat homage to Coburn’s Teesside roots, it additionally outlines her conflicting wanderlust, the will to see the world energised by an infectious, rollicking cowpoke rhythm.
There’s wonderful lyrical phrase play at work right here – “thirsty for the thrills I search, spirit keen however your flesh is weak, underline these phrases I communicate, you may select to be a beast or to remain meek.” She precedes this music – as she typically does – with explanatory notes and charming digressions starting from the comedian to the chopping, outlining the darker aspect forward of the primary of two encore tracks, Wine to Your Funeral. It’s a superb balancing act, and she or he walks the tightrope with practised ability.
There are many standout moments – Nodding Canine comes on like a candy lullaby, but it surely transpires the music was impressed by ‘knobheads on Tinder’ with their ‘Etch-a-Sketch hearts’. See Noticed – her self-confessed favorite off the album – is an actual keeper. Right here, an harmless musical-box opening morphs right into a scrumptious, insidious fairground waltz that manages to deliver each John Barry and Jake Thackray to thoughts. Over this, Coburn’s breathy vocal – with shades of Dubstar’s Sarah Blackwood – masks a darkish and sly malevolence. It’s of a bit together with her unabashed lifelong love of Grimm fairytales and the gothic-tinged literature of Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, Angela Carter and “silent German surrealist horror – yeah I do know, I’m cool” – she laughs.
There’s a touching dedication to a widowed fan who’d bought in contact through e-mail earlier than Please Go Gently, which she performs alone; a shifting, unusually upbeat exploration of affection and letting go. Written in English and showing on the album as Sandra, however reworked for a single launch in French, Le Fabuleux Destin de Sandra is a scrumptious story of revenge, with a twist impressed by the true-life revelations of Coburn’s aged French landlady throughout her college placement 12 months. “I spent £90,000 on my diploma, it’s the primary time I’ve used it,” she laughs. It appears to be like like cash effectively spent.
A Middlesbrough upbringing has given Coburn a finely tuned sense of self and id as a proud ‘Smoggie’ – the ebb and move of the realm’s coastal tides clearly inform her musical rhythms. Newest single, One thing Wild, one other rousingly upbeat affair – with a video clearly influenced by Angela Carter’s novella Firm of Wolves – whets the urge for food for the forthcoming second long-playing effort. Tonight marks the music’s stay debut. Below moody, blood-red lighting worthy, she and the band pull it off with ease. She’s additionally assured sufficient to throw in snippets of The Beatles’ Norwegian Wooden and Tomorrow By no means Is aware of on the superb closing quantity, the joyous Excellent Storm, which put me in thoughts of The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler.
If there’s any justice, Coburn will discover the mainstream and dive straight in.
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You will discover Amelia Coburn on-line right here and on Patreon right here
New single One thing Wild video may be seen right here
All phrases by Steve Morgan. You will discover Steve on Bluesky Social right here
Photograph credit score – Emma Johnson
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