'Humdrum 5' is a collection of five songs from Leeds based singer-songwriter Roberta Smith. Two tracks are entirely new recordings – remixes of earlier unreleased, unproduced material.
Swinging from the humdrum banality of everyday life and boredom for office secretaires, to her version of old English folk favourite ‘Tom, Tom, The Piler’s Son’ to the pathos of ‘Somebody’s Else’s Child’, she somehow manages to mix humour and pathos with themes of surviving the repetitive boredom of office work, disconnectedness and alienation, the disillusions of modern society, with lost love and the thrill of a first meeting.
So you could say it’s certainly fluid. The mood is light, rhythmic and quirky with touches of jazz and folk, perhaps a little reminiscent of Suzanne Vega.
Roberta’s been around the circuit for a while – with roots in the singer-songwriter movement of the 70s. Her clarity of voice and intricate finger style guitar bring charming touches into play.
She certainly has a sense of fun, a full-on imagination and a tongue in cheek turn of phrase, but there’s also twists of sadness, lost love and betrayal – hardly surprising given fifty years of writing and performing – starting out at the tender age of fifteen.
‘Humdrum 5’ was recorded in her own home studio, remixed by Aeron Z Jones, also playing bass, producing all tracks and recording engineer on some tracks.
She has a way with words – she’s having fun along the way, with a very fine voice and musicianship, and occasionally switching from the banal and the ridiculous into the more serious emotional nuances of life.