Self Esteem, Edinburgh review: 'life-affirming'
On the evidence of this Usher Hall show, Self Esteem deserves to be playing arenas, writes David Pollock
Self Esteem, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★★
“What a lovely venue,” observed Rebecca Lucy “Self Esteem” Taylor. “I'm just glad I'm not in shitholes any more!” She’s the definition of an artist who’s paid their dues on the way up, and this is the kind of concert she deserves, a crescendo of artistic vision as much as of simple musical catalogue-building.
Recent adventures in the West End (playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret, just announced for a revival of David Hare’s Teeth ‘n’ Smiles) have clearly informed a set high on theatrical style. Taylor arrived downstage seemingly alone, dressed in a nun’s habit, to a slow drumbeat and her eight unseen backing singers/dancers’ choral intro to I Do and I Don’t Care.
This song is also the opener of Taylor’s latest album A Complicated Woman, which this tour is named after and structured around. The main set ended with the album’s finale, The Deep Blue Okay, with all nine women in a sisterly huddle, and in between new and old material was blended. When most of the fresher material is at least as beloved as the old, you know an artist is at the top of their game.
These new works included the banging club beats of Mother (“I am not your mother / I am not your mum” runs its very non-dancefloor mantra) and the sexual position shopping list 69, both performed by a nonet of nuns.
The habits were cast off for the hymnal, trumpet-led Logic, Bitch!, the extremely effective pop anthem The Curse, What Now’s a cappella choral in near-complete darkness and the pure neon pop explosion Cheers to Me.
READ MORE: James Yorkston & Nina Persson, Edinburgh review: 'an enchanting chamber-folk partnership'
This deeply impressive, life-affirming concert felt like these songs’ natural environment, next to which even Taylor’s finest older songs – including Prioritise Pleasure, with its stunning, strobe-lit dance sequence, and a conversational I Do This All the Time – felt included for expectation’s sake.
“I'm just glad I'm not in concert halls any more,” she deserves to say one day, when she makes it to the arenas.
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