Stuart Warwick – returns this year to showcase his new project and his second record under this guise, ‘The Butcher’s Voice’. Where Jacob’s Stories was pleasantly pretty and twinkly, The Butcher’s Voice is dark, bare, fragile and sometimes bordering on sinister. Although recognisable, this is a whole other kettle of fish.
Stuart Warwick has been likened to Perfume Genius and yes – there are elements of Perfume Genius’ earnest tones, subject matter and beauty….although The Butcher’s Voice would be more akin to a Perfume Genius record, if Perfume Genius hooked up with Keaton Henson and Thom Yorke and had babies….severely depressed babies….and the depressed babies made the Perfume Genius record.
Yes it’s dark, but it is also its own breed of thought-provoking composition, and there is a lot to be said for a musician that can create something so individual.
Themes of gender identity and carefully crafted stories about ‘growing up as Stuart Warwick’ envelope The Butcher’s Voice, punctuated by the album artwork- an image of female-to-male transsexual porn star Buck Angel; the antithesis of a hyper masculine male – muscle-bound, shaved head, moustached, tattooed. Then there’s a track called, “Man with a pussy.” So….
