Du Blonde is not a persona or a character, it’s Beth Jeans Houghton ripping it up and starting again. Welcome Back To Milk is the Newcastle-born and sometimes Californian based singer's second album, but her debut as Du Blonde, and it's a complete reinvention: new name, new sound, new band, new attitude - and attitude is the key word...

Welcome Back to Milk is the debut album of the reinvented Beth Jeans Houghton, now going under the name Du Blonde. The reason for Houghton's rebranding? Apparently she realised she'd lapsed a little when it came to doing what she'd set out to accomplish with her music.

It started at the V&A, in the cavernous final room of the ‘David Bowie Is…’ exhibition, Beth had an epiphany. “When I was a kid, my idea of being a musician came from all these big characters – Bowie, Bolan, Beefheart" she says. "I had this moment in front of all these chapters of his life: this is what I want to do and I haven't done it for all of these years. All this stuff that was really important to me in the beginning, all of the creativity, emotional expulsion, I’d just lost all of that. It was such a sad moment, but also good – because you can't change it unless you realise.” It was time for a revolution and to get back to what she’d always promised herself: to keep moving, keep changing, keep pushing art and sound and never be pinned down. Beth Jeans Houghton was dead, and Du Blonde was born.

The results speak for themselves, Du Blonde explorers her edgier side; her softer side and her wilder side over the course of these 12 tracks (35 min, 37 sec).

The album kicks off with the mellow punk sounds of 'Black Flag' and 'Chips to Go'.

'After The Show' and 'Four In The Morning' allow Du Blonde to showcase a more mellow side to her vocals. And the mix of styles works well. There are are also elements of Cher ('Hunter') and The Last Shadow Puppets ('If You're Legal').

It's an impressive album which spreads its net wide, yet the end result is unmistakably Du Blonde.

8

Nick Smithson