Album Description

Released October 8th, 2007 in the UK and Europe, Party Girl is Tom Ovans' 11th album. The reviews have been glowing, including 4 star mentions in UNCUT, Q, and MOJO magazines.

Reviews

I'd wager that not even Tom Ovans himself really knows where the white heat that fuels his music comes from. Surely no-one can sit down and plan an album as full of rage, however well directed and deserved, as this and survive the process.

Given the brilliance of his previous releases, it's something to say that Party Girl may just be Ovans at his angry best, on it he has adopted a scorched earth policy, picking his subjects and leaving them devastated in his wake.

Some of Ovans' power must be derived from his ability to look at the worst of the world squarely and spit in its eye. He is an uncompromising and defiant musician, never taking a step back from stripping the skin off modern life and revealing the rotting flesh that lies underneath.

Blessed with a voice that sounds as if it has gone 15 rounds with a shredder, Ovans uses it to alternately howl at the moon on "Whiskey Jar" then take the haunting "Sugar Mama" to a place few know exists and even fewer could find.

As always, matching Tom Ovans step for step is his artist wife Lou Ann Bardash - a formidable solo artist in her own right - she adds a soaring counterpoint to Ovans dirt road delivery.

On Party Girl, Tom Ovans reaches back to a time when artists wrote, painted and sang what was in their hearts and then offered it for scrutiny. The difference between Tom Ovans and a 'desperate to please everyone' musician is a chasm. The apocalyptic "I'll Be Seeing You" is designed to stir the blood and it works.

Party Girl is a spiky listen, Ovans can draw you close to him with the beautiful poetry of "Hole In My Shoe" and "Ooh Baby," and once you're in, he lets fly. He cares nothing for the frivolities and niceties of showbusiness, Party Girl hasn't been produced or engineered into banality in some futile attempt to increase its appeal, it has been left raw and bleeding. Tom Ovans is a man of deep conscience and you accept his music on those terms or not at all.

If anyone has made the most of the great talents at his disposal it is Tom Ovans.

Americana UK Date review added: Monday, October 01, 2007 Reviewer: Michael Mee Reviewers Rating: 10 out of 10