Since her auspicious entry into the electronic music space (ask yourself, how was ‘Concrete Angel’ not GRAMMY-nominated!!?), taking the alt-route has become par for Christina Novelli’s course. To start putting that into context, her new album ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You!’ (out Feb 9) is the direct follow up to 2019’s ‘Through My Eyes’. Given that the latter was an all-acoustic affair, while ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You!’ could hardly be more ‘club’, it allows you some idea of the artistic latitude Christina’s carved for herself.
As Christina says, through the album she’s “looking to share experiences of the various types of relationships I’ve navigated in my life, and the journey, so often of self-discovery, they’ve taken me on.” As ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You!’s title suggests, they’re ones with which you’ll likely relate. Behind her personal insights lie themes familiar to many: love, regret, obsession, passion, grief; break-ups, make-ups, and parental/sibling relationships to mention but a few.
Convention-challenging titles and lyrics are something Novelli’s carried through from her first release to her most recent work. So, it’s as much about the ‘how’ she’s approached the album’s themes as the ‘why’. Consider … where else would you find a title like ‘Heavy’, whose lyrics are foreshadowed with promise and brighter days potential? Who else would wrap up the ‘Leaving Me’/‘Beautiful Lies’/‘Fallen Ones’ singles run with an a track that so emphatically states, ‘I’m Not Sad’! This is Christina’s world, where the prosaic or preformed have no place and ‘the usual’ is something she pushes back against with all her artistic psyche.
By their natures, soloists thrive in the spotlight’s beam. Here however you have a vocalist actively seeking to share mic and song-sheet with others of the same skillset. Over its ten-track course, Christina co-writes and sings with Sue McLaren, Sarah de Warren, Bo Bruce, Linney, Reigns, and Susie Ledge on songs that span the aforementioned themes. While ostensibly novel, her commitment to developing other female artists is something Christina’s pursued through her Muse Music Records and Muse Music Management enterprises for a number of years now.
She expands: “for as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to do joint vocal collaborations, so I thought this was the perfect time to introduce this. The vocal collaborations are also co-writes, which meant we were able to share our stories, in the lyrics we wrote. Each artist that I worked with on this album, I chose specifically because of their individual and unique talents. I love how perfectly they have mastered their own craft and how much they have inspired me in their music. So, I just knew they would get the vision I had for this album and together we would create magic.”
There’s no better window to a singer’s soul, than through their lyrics, and Christina’s telling us much about hers on this album. ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You!’ also holds a mirror up to shared life experiences though, while its tracks collectively comment on the human condition - frailties and all. At its core however, ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You!’ asks a simple question: … Can you relate!?
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