Anybody reading this (anybody…?) who feels annoyed that I chose not to include a track by Madder Rose on the last Peel Show this blog covered due to my finding the vocal a bit annoying, may well find themselves calling for a stewards inquiry about my including this track. With Sisters, ZuZu’s Petals sound a little bit like what you would get if say, Lisa Loeb and Joan Osborne decided to form a duo. The voices would be bright and radio friendly, they’d sell plenty of records/tickets and alienate as many as they would charm, but the key would be to listen to what was being sung and find rewards that a seemingly flimsy set-up doesn’t initially promise.
Sisters is about two sisters who, over alternating lines, compare the direction that their lives have gone in and their thoughts on their family members. The sisters love each other, but it is clear that their ideas and feelings are divergent from one another to the extent that all of the things they sing in their respective lines could never be said to each other, or at the very least, are acknowledged as being in some way responsible for their separation from each other. The differences mount up line by line:
1. One sister has a car/The other sister has to make do with a bike.
2. One sister feels that their mother made a mistake marrying their father/The other sister defends their father.
3. One sister has married a man that the other sister was in love with/The other sister is in a consolation relationship.
4. One sister is expecting a child/Neither sister thinks that this is necessarily going to be a good idea.
As the song comes out of its instrumental break, it becomes clear that one of the sisters is in the midst of domestic problems, possibly caused by monetary issues at home. Although, one sister ponders whether this is down to the man her sister is with - a point of view which we can guess may have caused tension between them in the past - the song ends on an optimistic note. The sisters are separated and miss one another, but we are left to hope that their bond will cause one to contact the other before it’s too late.
The performance is light, delicate, slightly sugary…and utterly truthful.
I’m going to dedicate this track to the memory of Melanie Safka due to her link to ZuZu’s Petals as revealed by Peel on his 30/1/93 show.
Video courtesy of ZuZu’s Petals - Topic
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