14 July 2025
Back in the day (1977-1984), British punkettes THE RAINCOATS
were one of the top indie bands in the UK. They released 3 LPs,
then called it a day.
In 1993, they reunited, fabricated another album (1996),
launched reissues and rarities and gigged now and then.
Co-founder/bassist GINA BURCH was/is very active as
a film/videomaker. She worked for big names such as
The Libertines and New Order.
In 2023, she released her critically acclaimed solo debut
LP I Play My Bass. It was released through Jack White’s
Third Man Records.
New album artwork
Album: TROUBLE
Her 2nd one, again released
via the former white stripe’s
record label.
Press info: Trouble is a patchwork of sorts: its 11 songs are not only eclectic
in genre but play like stitched-together vignettes, fly-on-the-wall scenes in which
Gina describes meeting a stranger on a train, or a flare up with her teenage daughter,
or the nostalgia of driving past a certain part of your neighborhood that’s been
unchanged for as long as you can remember.
It’s the politics of the everyday, a work that is feminist not because of slogans
or placards, but because it’s a candid portrait of a female artist simply existing.
As such, the connecting factor that links all the songs on Trouble together isn’t one
single ideology or theme or topic, but Gina herself. It’s her vision, informed by her
status as a rock icon, her voice as a forward-thinking artist, and her perspective as someone who just thinks life should be a bit of a laugh sometimes.
Birch: “It’s a bit out there, a bit off the tracks, and I always like to go there. I unofficially subtitled the album ‘Trouble I’ve Caused and Trouble I’m In’, so the songs are based around
that feeling—that dangerous place to be.”
“These songs came to me like a radio tuning, the airwaves going along, and I just plucked them out of the air. Something just clicks in the atmosphere, and I just take it. I’m not writing an opus about one thing. I’m writing an opus about being me.”
TUTV: Hey, all you people in trouble out there (the whole planet, I guess, each one in his/her own way) close your eyes and let your ears get massaged by this introspective, soul-searching record. You’ll feel like being in the middle of a gratifying dream with no intention whatsoever to wake up soon. Well, that’s what my troubled inner ego experienced.
Birch moves and grooves in dub bass motion juiced with swollen, resounded orchestrations here and there, while reggae echoes add a party feel. Most of all
Trouble entertains your confused 2025 state of mind. Its slow/fast trippy swagger
has a hip-shaking impact and her expressive vocals fit the full picture as a glove.
Stay yourself, stay in trouble, doom monger. I’m sure the late great dub wizard
Lee “Scratch” Perry would have loved this kind of sonic trouble too.
Jack White has (as we actually already knew)
acumen ears and the late great dub expert.
Highlights: the two singles, I Thought I’d Live Forever, Cello Song,
Don’t Fight Your Friends and Nothing Will Ever Change That.
Singles
Buy/Stream Album