Your Mother Was a Peacock

Oxlip is Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Jayne Trimble, originally from Northern Ireland, and her philosophy on Your Mother Was a Peacock is that ‘a completely beautiful song can be the greatest way to say f**k you.’ She has a fine voice – reminiscent of Olivia Chaney’s delivery on the excellent Offa Rex album – set to an indie rock palette of sounds that embraces psychedelia and the darker, shadowed areas of folk-rock. The set is born with purpose – dedicated to retelling ‘stories of women throughout history and the price they have paid to a cruel patriarchal society.’ So single ‘White Dove’ focuses on the fate of fifth-century Saint Eulalia of Mérida, one of the set’s many tragic heroines, burned at the stake for her faith; in folklore, a white dove flew from her mouth at the point of death. ‘Daddysaurus’ follows the fate of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed to win the Trojan War, while the title-track is for Mata Hari, sat in her prison cell before execution and writing a letter to her daughter.

Recorded live in the studio over three days, there’s a freshness and immediacy to the performances, a beguiling attractiveness corralled by a firm lyrical edge, intent on exposure and the reclamation of power.