Following the release of their critically acclaimed debut album The Heart Wants What It Wants earlier this year, LATE TRANSMISSIONS featuring EVE QUARTERMAIN present their new track A Little Drop Of Poison. A shift in direction from the cinematic drama of previous tracks, Poison delivers a lighter yet still highly seductive musical touch with the lauded vocal talents of Eve Quartermain conveying the darkly whimsical lyrics of a lover plotting a deadly scheme to extricate herself from the man she has grown tired of. A conscious uncoupling this is not.
The track has long been recognised by those who heard the record upfront as one of the standout moments from an album full of them, in particular being highlighted as the track with huge crossover appeal. With a release date perfectly timed for the spooky season, the song is matched with a low key visualiser video, full of Hallowe’en-esque scenes of deliciously dark goings-on.
A Little Drop Of Poison is the fourth track to be taken from their debut album released on limited edition hand-numbered red vinyl, jewel case CD and all streaming services in May, where it picked up critical acclaim from all areas of media including a striking two page interview feature in The Guardian.
Behind Late Transmissions are David Balfe and David Hughes – two friends who last played together in the Merseyside post-punk scene. Balfe, playing with Big In Japan and The Teardrop Explodes, went on to be a producer, publisher and founder of both Zoo Records and Food Records, signing Blur and Echo & The Bunnymen among many others.
Hughes played with OMD before transitioning into a highly successful long-term career scoring TV and film, including Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, before reuniting with Balfe, his former band mate in proto-synth act Dalek I Love You, out of a shared love for the orchestra-led classic pop of the likes of Scott Walker, John Barry, Shirley Bassey and Dusty Springfield.
The undoubted star of the album, however, is the incredible vocal talent of sensational discovery Eve Quartermain, late of London and New York before finding herself back in Liverpool. This torch-singing femme fatale combines angry power with cracked vulnerability and a noirish fatalism and hers is the pounding heart of the album.
The lush cinematic arrangements that define the sound of Late Transmissions paint a landscape of longing and loss, but it is the plaintive rawness and sombre depths in Eve’s delivery that carries the weight of this record. This is an album for those who understand that no matter how bleak life may become there is consolation, redemption even, to be had from singing your truth, loudly and proudly.
Eve sings to those trapped in this world’s shadowy dead ends, to the many for whom love is more often a source of misery than happiness. To all of us that hurt. Her voice makes plain that she herself has lived out such tales too often. Indeed The Heart Wants What It Wants is that rare thing – a collection of songs that drip with sorrow and anger – each track a scar born of damage and broken hopes, each defeat providing fuel for the fire that’s burning within. It’s an intimate glimpse into a soul who has taken all that life has thrown at her to emerge bruised but unbeaten. A woman who rises despite it all.
The album is available here: https://musicsaves.co.uk/product/theheartwantswhatitwants/