New Releases:
from Goldmine magazine (US)
by Geof O-Keefe, February 2000:
Judie Tzuke
Secret Agent
Big Moon (BM003) (UK)
Virtually unknown in the US, English singer/songwriter Judie Tzuke (for the record it's pronounced "zook", rhymes with spook) has been releasing quality albums for more than two decades. Secret Agent continues in that tradition.
Best known for her '78 blessing-and-a-curse hit "Stay With Me Till Dawn", that song, combined with her being on Eltons John's Rocket Recrds Label, pigeonholed her as a lightweight pop act. Over the course of 11 albums on at least six European labels, Tzuke has shown herself to be a songwriter of depth and beauty far beyond that misconception (as evidence, this writer first heard about her in an interview/profile in a Kate Bush fanzine).
Unlike Bush's eclectic and experimental puruits, Tzuke is a bit more grounded in a popish rock format, but her rich, breathy and deep voice is every bit as seductive without the quirkiness. In a song such as the album's heartbreaking title track, the subject is a woman suspecting her mate of cheating on her. "I'm breathing in your shirts to see if the perfume is my own, I'm reading bills from restaurants and I'm listening on the phone" she painfully admits, before the wrenchingly sad "I never thought I'd stoop so low, I never thought I'd feel so ugly".Exquisitely produced by longtime collaborator/mate Paul Muggleton, the delicate verses explode into the power-ballad chorus, complete with a haunting string arrangement.
Other highlights include the catchy "Fuel Injection" and "Bully" which climaxes with a chanting chorus of "Go on without me if you don't want me, but don't nail me to the floor: Why don't you hit me if you don't love me? You can't hurt me anymore", getting louder and louder as the music fades out. The album closes with the achingly beautiful "Mother" inspired by the passing of Tzuke's parent.
Having given up on the major label game, this is the second release on Tzuke's own Big Moon label following an excellent live release and is only available by mail order at her web site: www.tzuke.com
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