All artists hold a great secret: the source of their inspiration. They are happy to reveal everything else – their life and loves and mistakes – but leave exposition of the nuts and bolts to others.
And the reason it’s such a secret? Because if the fawning and rapt observers (that’s us, folks) were to discover the utter banalities behind our favourite heroes’ artworks, our carefully assembled and equally fragile interpretations would be dashed on the rocks of bathos.
So at least Elise Mélinand has the brass neck to reveal that her newest excruciatingly delicate, woozily gorgeous song is about, erm, a blue cat.
Katie’s Blue Cat sounds like it ought to be the Monday-morning storybook tale of a seven year old returning to school after a particularly fun weekend. And in many ways, it is just that: summoning all the naivety and enrapt curiosity of childhood, glossed with a sumptuous, organic sheen.
Elise’s songs are almost too blissfully beautiful, too light, too charming: cynic to the last, I spent a fair portion of each song searching for the dark undertone, but didn’t find it. I was thrilled. Genuinely lovely.