Song of the Day — January 28
Imelda May, Noel Gallagher — “Just One Kiss” — 2021
Imelda May, Noel Gallagher — “Just One Kiss” — 2021
28.January.2021
Imelda May, Noel Gallagher
ft. Ronnie Wood
“Just One Kiss”
2021
Lest there be any confusion, yes, that’s Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, and yes, that’s Noel Gallagher of Oasis, and well, yes, that is the incomparable Imelda May.
“Just One Kiss” is the first single from her forthcoming album, 11 Past the Hour.
Imelda May has toured and/or played with some of the music names, like Jeff Beck and U2. She has also worked with notable producers like Peter Asher and T Bone Burnett; yet, the Irish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is much more familiar to audiences in Europe than here in the United States. And that’s a shame.
With its beefy hook and solid guitar sound, I don’t think “Just One Kiss” will create any inroads here in the states.
Although May is often pigeonholed as a “rockabilly” artist, that’s too simplistic for her talents. Indeed, elements of her career contain “rockabilly” stuff, but other parts include rock and roll and with her fifth album Life Love Flesh and Blood some jazz singing.
“Just One Kiss” falls squarely in the rock and roll column. With its big sound, the call and response with Noel Gallagher, and the searing solo from Ronnie Wood, the song is not looking to re-invent the wheel. Pairing with two muscle guitarists like Gallagher and Wood, May delivers as reliable a rock song as one could hope.
May is as sexy as ever, immediately drawing your attention with the first line, “Wanna fool around.” There is a muscularity (not masculinity) in the music, just as there is with both the lyrics and the call and response between May and Gallagher. Both genders are represented here, and to be clear, this is not a cooing love song.
“Just One Kiss” is a song about fucking.
If you doubt that, the repeated use of the word “mammalian” (relating to or denoting a mammal) should clue you in. Because what can be more “mammalian” or animalistic than smashing?
With her second album, Love Tattoo, both May and her label (her only album for Universal Music Group) put on a full-court press to break here in the states. It didn’t quite catch on.
May moved to Decca Records after Love Tattoo, and with her subsequent albums, breaking the American market seemed less a priority. Which is a good thing because it allowed her not to be hogtied to the label of a “rockabilly” artist. She could spread her wings.
Not that the quality of those albums (Mayhem, Tribal, Life Love Flesh Blood) suffers. May has been consistently excellent throughout her career, but for reasons, some artists just don’t catch on here in America.
It’s that freedom of not being restricted that has been Imelda May’s beacon throughout the years. In an interview in The Irish Times, from 2009, May had this to say about success:
“Some people think the only way of doing well or of having a career in music is to go the X Factor route, but a lot of people lose the joy out of music by going that way, possibly because they’re so incredibly focused on other people’s ideas of success.”
“Just One Kiss” is a rock song and strictly adheres to the KISS principle— Keep It Simple Stupid.
Rock and roll doesn’t need to be big and bloated or streamlined into simplicity. Rock and roll only needs to be good. And “Just One Kiss” is good.
11 Past the Hour won’t be released until April, so for those of us who are Imelda May fans, we’ll have to rely on “Just One Kiss” to hold us over until then. I’ll take it.