Review
Genre and Mood
Alice Russell sings High Up On the Hook as if she had nowhere else to be. It is soul with funk and jazz around it, six minutes long and in no hurry to finish. The mood is soulful and groovy, and the boldness is in the voice, which reviewers of the album called bold, exposed and full.
Song Summary
The song comes from My Favourite Letters, the 2005 album Russell made for the Brighton label Tru Thoughts with her co-writer, producer and guitarist Alex Cowan, who records as TM Juke. Both of them are credited as its writers. Reviewing the album, XLR8R described TM Juke’s production as muted trumpets, warped Afro basslines, chords in the manner of Thelonious Monk and subtly booming beats, with Russell’s voice bold and exposed on top. High Up On the Hook is that partnership at its most patient: a groove that sets the stage and a singer who fills it.
Musical Breakdown
Intro
At six minutes, the track can take its time, and the opening is where to hear that decision: listen to how much space the groove gets before the song starts to build.
Verse 1
Listen for the balance between band and singer: a reviewer described TM Juke’s backdrop as spacious, built for Russell’s voice to build on.
Main Section
The long middle is where the song has to earn its length. Listen for what changes in the arrangement and in how hard Russell pushes each line.
Outro
Listen to how the song finds its way out of a groove this settled, the hardest moment for any long soul track.
Concepts in Focus
A groove is the feel that makes a rhythm section move together, more than the notes it plays. On a six-minute soul track it is what keeps the listener with the song, and here it is the foundation everything else stands on.
Underneath sits the bassline. In soul and funk the bass is not just the bottom of the harmony but half of the rhythm, locked to the drums; XLR8R singled out the warped Afro basslines of TM Juke’s production on this album, so listen to what the bass does under the voice.
The song also has a well-documented live recording. In April 2006 Russell played it in Paris with TM Juke, Quantic and Nostalgia 77, and the concert became Live in Paris, the first DVD Tru Thoughts ever released, in 2007. A reviewer called her version a swinging number that brings the energy back down after the more intense songs of the set. Her official YouTube channel also has the song live in Athens. Compare the stage with the studio, and with the Amy Winehouse of Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good.
Artistic Context
Alice Russell, born in 1975, grew up in Framlingham in Suffolk, the daughter of an organist; she learned the cello from the age of nine, sang in choirs and moved to Brighton in 1994 to study art and music. Gospel and soul, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, shaped her style. In the early 2000s she sang with Quantic, Nostalgia 77 and TM Juke, and Tru Thoughts released her first collection, Under the Munka Moon, in 2004, followed by My Favourite Letters in September 2005.
Impact and Reception
The New Zealand Herald gave My Favourite Letters four stars, calling Russell a powerful, full-voiced singer and the album more consistent than her first, with Cowan’s spacious breakbeats giving her room to build. In 2006 she played the main stage of The Big Chill. High Up On the Hook also travelled beyond Tru Thoughts, onto compilations such as Putumayo’s A New Groove in 2007. It is here because it trusts a groove and a voice to be enough. Give it the full six minutes.
