Idha
is an artist I first heard of in 1994 when a song of hers was played
on Mark & Lard's BBC Radio 1 evening show - and I was hooked by
her straight away. Idha arrived on my scene at just the right
time. I was starting my exams for my final year at university
and, was understandably getting worried and tense about what was going
to happen to me in my future. Idha's very music, with her soft
and dreamy voice was just the tonic I was looking for.
I unfortunately know very little personal
information about Idha, which I suppose is one reason why I hold her in such a
high regard. Originally from Sweden, Idha moved to England and met up and
eventually married
Andy Bell. Idha and Andy's shared passion that brought them together was
finding out that they both had a shared
interest in the classic 60's group The Byrds. Andy, of course, is a well
known artist in his own right, starting his career in the great indie band Ride.
He then fronted his own band in Hurricane #1, and at present, is a guitarist in
Oasis. As I understand, Idha now lives back in Sweden with Andy.
Idha has only ever released two albums (which
is a crying shame), and has released five singles. Every song she has sung
on her albums and singles are worth their weight in gold. Idha means so
much to me psychologically, that she's an artist that will stay with me for
eternity.
There is very
little information that can be found around on the internet about Idha, which is
one reason why I really wanted to make an effort into putting across how much of
an underrated artist Idha is. Any details that can be found usually
involve brief mentions alongside her husband, Andy. One interesting item
of note is that one of Idha's recordings, I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have
was apparently never officially released on any album, other than on a cassette
from Select Magazine's Secret Tracks 2 compilation. Due to this song's
complete unavailability on any format, I have encoded a high quality MP3 of
this beautiful track. This song is available by selecting the link below:
(either select the link, or right-click and select save, depending on your
browser)
Below I have
summarised all of Idha's (known) commercial releases, starting with Idha's
albums and singles in chronological order. As with Idha's
albums, all her singles feature great cover photos. Idha's Going Down
South looks as though it's been taken from a video, but I don't know if it was
taken from a promo video for the song or not. All of Idha's singles
B-sides are magnificent songs, and stand up on merit on their own. An Idha
compilation album would not be complete without a collection of her singles
B-sides. Additionally, at the very bottom of this page I have included all
of the Idha magazine articles I have kept. Click on any of the pictures
below to download a much higher resolution picture.
Below are the
covers from both of Idha's albums.
Click on any
of the covers to download a larger version.
Melody Inn
Melody Inn is a
beautiful (mainly) acoustic album with hints of Americana. Much of Idha's
music and style on this album is strongly influenced by artists like Gram
Parsons and The Faces. Whilst writing or co-writing the majority of this
album, Idha does include three wonderful cover songs, written by Janis Ian, Gram
Parson and Tim Hardin.
Troublemaker
Despite the importance of Idha's first album to me, this is my favourite of the
two. Troublemaker has a much more assured sound to its predecessor, it
also much more emotionally engaging. The songwriting and production
qualities, along with the vocals are much more confident, whilst
still retaining Idha's beautifully idealic sounding voice.
Below are scans of all of Idha's
singles. Click on any of
the covers to download a larger version.
Get
Undressed
Idha's first single release consists of this, her most commercially (and
best) sounding song from her Melody Inn album. The single is backed by
three other songs: Do Right By Me, She and Coming Down. All the songs,
except She are written solely by Idha, and the cover song, She is written by
Creedence J. Wright.
A Woman In
A Man's World
This is Idha's most different, and one of her most beautiful releases - a
four track E.P. of cover songs all written by men. All of these songs
are unique to this single and don't appear on either of her two albums.
The songs are Ooh La La, A Song For You, Willin' and Going To Mexico.
Sorry
Sorry
Sorry Sorry, Idha's
first single from her second album features a change style from her more
acoustic country flavoured Melody Inn album. Other songs on the single
are Hey Honey and Downtown. Hey Honey is a high tempo song, and has an
amazing Honky Tonk piano sound to it. This is one of my favourite
singles B-sides of hers.
Going Down
South
Going
Down South is Idha's most commercial sounding song by far, which lets her voice
shine through the crowded song - which is full of instruments trying to make
themselves heard. In many ways, this song appears to have influenced
by the music flavours of the time... Britpop. B-sides accompanying the
single are Sweet 16 and Fire In The Sky, both of which have incredibly
delicate sounds.
Sweet
September Rain
Idha's last single release,
Sweet September Rain is a wonderful ballad, a song that enchants and leads
you into a dreamy world. Backed with the B-sides Break Down And Cry
and a demo version (from 1993!) of Going Down South, this release proves yet
again Idha's knack of writing and performing. There couldn't be a
greater contrast in sound between the demo and final versions of Going Down
South in terms of their sound.
Below are these Idha images which have been taken from other cover shots from
her music releases, either as back or inside cover pictures.
Click on any of the images to
download any of these as a larger image.
A Woman
In A Man's World
This image is taken from the
back cover of Idha's A Woman In A Man's World E.P., which although looks very
different to its actual front cover, it looks as though that they were both
taken from the same photo shoot.
Troublemaker
This is the front cover of the
inside label of Idha's Troublemaker album. Troublemaker was issued as
a digi-pack in the UK, and contained a separate booklet with pictures and
lyrics inside.
Sweet
September Rain
Obviously taken from the same
photo session as the Troublemaker pictures, this appears on the back cover
to Idha's Sweet September Rain single.
I only own two non-album related
Idha items - both taken from separate from the excellent (but sadly now defunct)
Select Magazine.
Click on any of these to
download a larger picture.
Select
Magazine Interview
This is a very light-hearted
'Hello' style interview in which Idha and Andy are photographed in a
humorous staged pose, along with
strategically objects placed alongside to reveal what reasons they behold to
the pair.
This is a delight to read, and gives an insight to what Idha and Andy's
personal relationship is like with each other.
Select
Magazine Album Review
I'm absolutely amazed that I kept this article - but this is
Select Magazine's view of Idha's Melody Inn album. Although I bought
the album after this magazine came out, I have no recollection of basing the
review as a reason to buy the album. The review does however give a
clue as to what anyone would be discovering should they listen to the album.
And yes, the album is sweet - but in a cute way.
Idha
is an artist I first heard of in 1994 when a song of hers was played
on Mark & Lard's BBC Radio 1 evening show - and I was hooked by
her straight away. Idha arrived on my scene at just the right
time. I was starting my exams for my final year at university
and, was understandably getting worried and tense about what was going
to happen to me in my future. Idha's very music, with her soft
and dreamy voice was just the tonic I was looking for.
