Tag Archives: Elise Hadgraft

CORPORATIONPOP: Meet Me By The Viaduct.

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I have a few days left in London, then it is off to the place that’s always felt like home. Manchester. Home to some of the best music and poets. Home. It will soon be my home. I’ve wanted to move there since I finished university. Things got in the way. I’ve properly been trying for nearly 2 years now to move there, and now it is happening. I should be scared, I should be nervous. I’m excited. There’s no better person to write about to cement my move than corporationpop aka Elise Hadgraft.

Her words remind me of a Sunday evening, dreading the working week. Her humour and observations are absolutely brilliant. Her voice/accent truly make these songs a joy to listen to. I listen to her words and her way with words, and it gives off this homely feel to it. You feel as if you’re sat down with your best mate in the pub/working men’s club drinking lukewarm beer or sat at home nursing a good cup of teas. Her words are comforting yet uncomfortable. Bleach evokes this. Then you have the beautiful observations of Stockport in the effortlessly brilliant Seven Miles South.

I’m not someone who can always write without being biased, so everything I’m writing about the new corporationpop release is obviously going to be one-sided, but then you listen to songs like Ted Hughes and it is so obvious how amazing Elise is. She’s got this incredible way with words, and you cannot help be in awe of her. The way she writes, the way she presents her words are so full of real life and raw references. References that are so wonderfully Northern. It makes you feel so at home and more aware of what it around you.

Meet Me By The Viaduct is such a fantastic EP that makes the mind wander. You may never get to the place where Elise is, but that’s okay. Maybe you’re watching her watching the world go by and creating it all here- as corporationpop. This EP is the perfect imagery of Northern life, and it is fantastic. I won’t do the North/South divide here- it doesn’t need to be done. It’s obvious what is better! Something I absolutely adore about this EP is the way that Elise says her words. The way she can effortlessly (I know I say it a lot- sorry!) put you where she is, and her way of doing so goes beyond being just words.

It is such a powerful body of work, and her words should be studied by kids at school. Honestly, she has this greatness to her that should be explored by all and learnt. Imagine being in school and having something like Elise’s words being shown to you, and you get to express what they mean to you. I’m pretty sure more kids would be turned on to poetry. And maybe they would turn off their phones.

I love the bitterness in Ted Hughes and how it comes across. I love how these words feel like something expressed after someone has just pissed you off too much you have to write a song about them, but in a way that holds a lot of wit, wisdom and a nice chunk of disdain.

This is the second corporationpop release but by no means does it play into to the “difficult second album” myth. If anything, it totally squashes it. In just 4 songs, you are taken to a place that feels like Corrie circa the 60s mixed with bus stop musings and observations.

I truly haven’t done Meet Me By The Viaduct any justice, so it’s probably best if you pre-order it here: https://oddboxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/meet-me-by-the-viaduct and find out for yourself.

Meet Me By The Viaduct will be released on 20th April via Odd Box Records.

CORPORATIONPOP: The Chester Road Demos.

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There is something quite poetic about daily life, and it is thanks to poets like Elise Hadgraft that we are able to find comfort in the mundane tribulations of daily life. Her words remind you of Pulp mixed with the genius that is, John Cooper Clarke. Those that observe closely write the best, and that’s what makes Elise so bloody great.

Her words are beautifully spoken over gentle synths that fortunately do not overshadow her wonderful Northern accent. We all know that Northern accents are the best- this wouldn’t work if she was from elsewhere. You feel as if you are in her living room with her slurping on lukewarm tea as you become engrossed in her words. I love how gorgeous her way with words are. There is something so raw and powerful in how she is fearless with her words.

She may shoot you down, but she’ll do it in a way that doesn’t hurt. A sharp tongue like Morrissey mixed with lighter Suicide sounds. For me, this is ideal. This is what I want from music and from poets. That unapologetic honesty that puts you right where the writer is coming from.

You Write Songs is probably my favourite on the EP so far. I love the picturesque cleverness in her words and how she says them. It also comes across in Before The NME Was Free has this romantic bitterness to it that makes you remember the days when the NME was a respectable broadsheet publication. Now it’s just..well..Topman fodder isn’t it. You see them every week lurking outside train stations, the poor sods, trying to flog free copies of the NME. As the day progresses, you see more and more wet trodden in copies on the floor. Can’t even give it away.

Sylvia Suburban has some of the best lyrics on the EP. You can’t help but think of someone who fits the description of Sylvia. You partly feel bad for them, but the other part of you can’t help but smirk at the accuracy of it all. Or maybe you are Sylvia. For me the makings of a great writer are those who can really make you vision everything in what they are saying, everything they are trying to evoke in their words stirs inside of you. You connect. With each listen you reconnect. There is no switching off here at all.

There is one line on this EP that I love so much. I love the tone of Vintage Lingerie, and for me the line “Your new girlfriend smokes slims. Dances like she swims.” is just genius like- like John Cooper Clarke observant. A sharp-witted tongue that will take no prisoners. There is so much to love about Elise’s words and how she delivers them, and I think in some respects it is HOW she says it that really makes you connect with her art.

It is a proper work of art that hangs in your mind rather than on your wall. The words echo daily. Over and over.