Hollie Cook’s Happy Hour, album review — a worthy modern-day example of lovers rock

Hollie Cook works in a genre judged to be the first black British musical form, a precursor to jungle, UK garage and grime. It is lovers rock, the romantic reggae style that emerged in London in the 1970s as a less macho alternative to Rastafarian roots-reggae from Jamaica.

The first lovers rock hit was Louisa Mark’s “Caught You in a Lie”, a tale of infidelity uncovered that came out in 1975. That year saw the start of a band that has also had a significant influence on Hollie Cook’s formation as a musician — the Sex Pistols, whose drummer is her father, Paul Cook.

Hollie was born in 1987, a decade after the punk wars, and some time after the chart heyday of lovers rock, too. Her mother, Jeni Cook, was in the music business too: she sang backing vocals for Culture Club (Boy George is Hollie’s godfather). The daughter followed her parents into the family trade as keyboardist and backing vocalist in the last line-up of The Slits when the feted all-woman punk band reunited in 2005.

Her solo debut was Hollie Cook, which came out in 2011. It had a retro-reggae sound, done with a light touch rather than heavy-handed pastiche. Over subsequent releases, the ska, rocksteady and dub elements in her music have been subsumed into the soulful melodies of lovers rock. It has become the primary focus of her reggae revivalism.

Her fourth album Happy Hour opens with the title track, in which Cook sings the part of a woman sitting in a bar with an empty glass. She is waiting for a lover whose lateness makes her feel helplessly trapped in the relationship. Her voice is sweet but plaintive, a melodious counterpart to the tight mesh of rhythms. The result is an adroit piece of storytelling, with a sure-footed sense of timing and an appealingly enigmatic emotional dynamic.

Atmospheric string arrangements in break-up song “Moving On” evoke the lushly orchestrated influence of Philly soul on lovers rock. In “Unkind Love”, Cook’s clear tones are set against the pressing low frequencies of a horn ensemble. The contrast illustrates the song’s account of an obsessive love affair, at once intoxicating and overwhelming.

Cook has co-produced the songs with her musical accompanists, Luke Allwood and Ben Mckone of London reggae band General Roots. The executive producer is Martin “Youth” Glover, former Killing Joke bassist. Stylistic variations include “Gold Girl”, which has the symphonic grandeur of a Bond theme, and “Move My Way”, which is closer to Soul II Soul than reggae.

“Kush Kween” is a breezy ode to marijuana with a guest turn from Jamaican singer Jah9. Its after-effects seem to infuse “Love in the Dark”, a sensual number with psychedelic dub-reggae effects. The album’s varied moods are true to the original spirit of lovers rock, whose signature songs went from swooning romance such as Carroll Thompson’s “Hopelessly in Love” to the bittersweet sentiments of Janet Kay’s “Silly Games”. With Happy Hour, Cook proves herself a worthy modern-day successor.

★★★★☆

‘Happy Hour’ is released by Merge Records