In the 2025 article “3 Niche Bands Every Woman Wishes Her Partner Would Listen To” on American Songwriter, Em Casalena had some very nice things to say about Echobelly and On.

I’ll never understand how Echobelly didn’t get bigger back in the 90s. They are one of the most niche Britpop bands of the 1990s, and their music was really on another level. This group was led by the charismatic Sonya Madan, and much of the band’s music explored themes of identity, female sexuality, and overall social exploration. Madan’s voice stands out among many of her contemporaries, and I really wish the whole of the band got bigger outside of the UK. If you’re a fan of The Smiths, you might just love Echobelly. On from 1995 is essential listening.

Though I am not a fan of The Smiths (except for Johnny Marr), I agree with her assessment. I will also note that it is pretty easy to explain why Echobelly was unable to reach a wider audience: they lost the momentum they had built due to a string of unfortunate events.

Their first album (Everyone’s Got One) charted at #8 in 1994 and earned them kudos from luminaries like R.E.M. and Madonna. On was released in 1995, reached #4 on the U.K. charts, and produced three top-30 singles. That performance was pretty impressive given the competition. 1995 was the year Blur released The Great Escape (#1), Pulp came out with Different Class (#1), Oasis gave us (What’s the Story) Morning Glory (#1), Elastica’s debut album also topped the charts, and Sleeper’s debut album Smart hit #5. Echobelly was right up there with the big boys and girls at the peak of Britpop when fate intervened. Sonya explained the events that led to their temporary disappearance in an interview with Louder Than War:

Tell me about the demise of Echobelly and the Britpop era, what happened?

It was a classic rock n roll story in the sense that we were signed to Sony, doing pretty well. We had played all over the world and built up a following. There were rumbles that we were poised to break America and we had interest from established managers there, but our management wouldn’t let us go, even though the deal was that they would allow an American manager to take care of us, the principal manager wouldn’t let that happen, so we had to sack him and then he came back at us. He used the legal aid system that existed then and got taken on by a big law firm, who threatened to take away my home, in order to get back what they said we owed him . . .

After two years of madness, the barrister sorted it out within days by showing that the law firm would not make a penny from this case. When his lawyers realised that they weren’t going to get anywhere they dropped him like a hot potato. But we had two years of basically defending ourselves because we couldn’t afford a lawyer, so I used to sit there by the computer answering 40 of their questions weekly that they kept inundating us with. We just couldn’t make any music as it was all imploding simultaneously, we were just locked into this legal battle. There was no money – and here’s the fun part, we had just had all our money stolen by our accountant and had just been dropped by Sony. So we went from being a successful act with world tours under our belt, poised to do great things, to literally going into the accountants and being told we had £200 in our account.

What Sonya doesn’t mention is that during the battle, she was hit with a serious thyroid problem during a world tour that took some time to resolve. Bassist Alex Keyser soon left the band due to artistic and personal differences, and guitarist Debbie Smith departed just before that long-awaited follow-up album (Lustra) was released over two years later. Lustra died at #47. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music opened his review of Lustra with this spot-on observation: “It’s funny how a band can lose momentum in two years, especially in British pop. Either because of changes in the musical climate or changes in the band, a group that was at the top of the charts one year can return 24 months later and find that everything has shifted 180 degrees.”

Echobelly deserved so much better.

*****

At the core of Echobelly are the two expat soulmates, Sonya Madan and Glenn Johansson. She was born in Delhi and arrived in England at the age of two; Glenn hailed from Sweden, where he worked for the erotic magazine Eros and formed a band that eventually made their way to London. The band wasn’t making much of a buzz, but they did a show at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden that Sonya happened to attend. Glenn recalled how they met in his interview with Louder Than War: “I was in the corner having a beer and she was sitting across the room. She threw a fag packet at me and she had put her phone number on it. I called her and we started talking. So, that’s the first time I met Sonya. After about two weeks, I moved into her flat in Goodge Street, and I’ve been living in her place ever since, basically!”

Sonya told Glenn that she wanted to sing in a band and write the lyrics—a pretty cheeky request from a woman who had never done either. She told the Chicago Tribune that “I used to sing to myself as a child. I suppose I had a secret desire to sing.” Not much of a resume, but Sonya is one of those rare souls who possess a naturally beautiful timbre, a gift for phrasing, and superb articulation. Her lyrical gifts are equally impressive, inspired first and foremost by the music supplied by her partner. “He’ll come up with ideas and tunes and put them down and eventually play some to me, and the ones that work for me or move me or inspire me, we’ll then hone in on. I listen to the music and enter a mental space, almost like a past-life memory experience. I suppose it’s visual first, for me, in that I often run a film in my mind of what the tune is saying to me.”(ibid)

After filling out the band with Andy Henderson on drums and Alex Keyser on bass, Echobelly recorded the EP Bellyache, which turned Morrissey into their biggest fan and led to a recording contract with indie label Rhythm King, a Sony subsidiary. Shortly thereafter, they added Debbie Smith as a second guitarist (described by Melody Maker as “the rockingest chick in Christendom”), completing the lineup you hear on their first three albums.

Most of the U.K. press described Echobelly as a mix of the Smiths and Blondie, but many paid critics invariably try to compare a new band to old bands because they can’t think of anything original to say. I’ll play along and tell you that I sure as hell don’t hear new wave in Echobelly’s songs, and Sonya noted that the Smiths’ influence was limited to Glenn’s guitar work: “Yes, but that’s more Glenn’s influence, it’s not mine – as I didn’t grow up with the Smiths.” What I do hear is the influence of grunge, and at least one critic got it half-right: “Echobelly were at the forefront of the UK indie scene in the 1990s with writer Barry Waiters describing their sound as ‘a 90s strain of power pop that’s got the bounce of Blondie with the crunch and ache of Nirvana.'”

The unusual title for the album is explained in the notes from the expanded edition: “The album title was inspired by a poster found by Echobelly members Glenn Johansson and Sonya Madan. The poster had the word “no” across it in blood red. By turning the word around, it became a positive, and the band took the word as the album’s title.” Though some of the songs explore the darker sides of life, the lyricist rejected the notion that On was a dark album. “On is full of positivity and hope, but not on a superficial level. If you want to jump up and down, you can, but if you want to listen to the words and get something else out of it, it’s there.”

When a reader suggested this album earlier this year, I found a spot for it on the schedule lickety-split because of its positive vibes. The music is largely upbeat and driving, with memorable melodies, but even when Sonya deals with difficult subject matter, she usually offers us a way out of our miseries by pointing out that things don’t have to be this way if we have the will and the wisdom to move from “poor me” to taking control of our lives.

ON with the show!

*****

All songs written by Sonya Madan and Glenn Johansson.

“Car Fiction”: Echobelly wastes no time getting down to business with this killer opening number. The build in the intro is exceptionally well-designed, opening with the two guitarists engaging in a back-and-forth with grungy shots of power set to a C#m/Abm pattern supported by Alex on bass. Sonya enters after two go-rounds in her strong, confident voice, and when she starts singing the second line, I start to wonder, “Where the hell are the drums?” Andy answers my query in a nanosecond, emerging from the deep background halfway through the line and gradually increasing the strength of his attack until he arrives in the forefront to drive this sucker into full rock mode. Sonja’s voice soars to the heavens for the bridge and chorus, and I feel a strange combination of orgasmic activity coupled with nascent tears as I take in the sheer beauty of it all.

The lyrics describe two taxi rides through old London town, one in the daytime and one in the heat of the night. Sonya digs beneath the surface of the hustle and bustle to expose the façades behind each.

In a taxi chasing for the sun,
All around us strangers everyone,
With no hope for what they hope for,
We could drive all of our tears away.

Oh oh ho run run away,
Maybe we could run away
Oh oh ho run run away,
Maybe we could run away,
Oh oh ho.

The message is that there is no hope in allowing oneself to be consumed by the rat race, so let’s get the fuck out of here! The verse pattern is a bit more complex, with the first line following the C#m-Abm pattern before breaking away to an A-E-B-F#m-C#m-B sequence. The chorus sticks to a F#m-C#m-B pattern before taking a downward turn to A-Ab, providing additional drama to the music while expressing disappointment with the status quo.

One might think that things will get better at night when people are ready to party, but once again, disappointment awaits:

In a taxi ride that ends too soon,
The city skyline tries to kick the moon,

We’ve no time for what they wait for,
We can drive all of our tears away.

Oh oh ho run run away,
Maybe we could run away . . .

I think what they’re waiting for is either the chance to meet “the one” or find someone willing to engage in a quickie, but in either case, the odds are against them. The most important message is found in the bridge, where Sonya identifies societal expectations as the main barrier to happiness, while encouraging us to break down the walls of conformity and routine—a theme that will be repeated throughout the album:

You and I against the walled-in generation,
You and I could kick the walls away,
We have no time for what they wait for,
We can run fast
We can run far.

After another round of the chorus, Glenn reprises the chorus melody on his guitar while the band rocks hard, then pffft! Song’s over! I completely agree with Martin Fuller of Brighton and Howe News, who saw Echobelly perform the song during a 2024 concert. “To this day, I still can’t understand why this was never released as a single; it ticks every box needed for success, the driving grungy guitars packing a real punch, then ending suddenly.”

“King of the Kerb”: Sonya shared the inspiration behind this song with Clash Music:

“I am the greatest voyeur,” Madan admits, contemplating her writing style . . . The lyrics were inspired by the songwriter’s time living in Soho. “I was an 18-year-old student, fresh from a very strict, middle-class upbringing. Both my parents had PhDs. Everyone in the family was academic. And there was me, living in Soho, looking at the strip clubs across the road,” she remembers with a smile. Across the street from her apartment lay The Capricorn Club – a round-the-clock magnet for “dodgy” characters. “They’d park their cars outside and they’d walked around like they owned it – and they probably did. That song was me looking at this world – the kings of the kerb.”

Sonya’s experience was one big giant step in Jung’s process of individuation. Even if you are blessed with great parents (like I am), you have to leave the parental nest to find out who you are and who you are not. Lucky for us, Sonya had the gift of curiosity and wanted to see how the other half lived, including the criminal element. Her description of the King tells us she was a quick learner:

Sugar smile savvy, the king of the kerb
Got a temper in the style of a bomb
Got his friends in his pocket or safe behind bars
All the local boys know what he’s done

He turns it on
He turns it on
He turns it on

[Chorus]

Same boys doing it for themselves
There’s somebody out there doing it for you
Safe while you’re paying out for your health
They’re the kings of the kerb
And everybody knows what they’re worth . . .

Safe from harm and safe from greed,
A little protection is all that you need,
Safe from home and safe from greed,
They’re just a racket machine.

“He turns it on” has a double meaning. The King can turn on the charm to lull victims into accepting offers they can’t refuse in the name of protection, and he can turn on you in a heartbeat and explode, using one of his underlings to send you to live with the fishes.

The song opens with Glenn playing a sinuous riff with plenty of distortion. Andy again delays his entrance, bashing away as the guitars rock at full power. The melody is ironically beautiful, and Sonya delivers her vocals with absolute confidence. The only gripe I have with the song is with the mix: at times, the guitars are too damn loud, robbing me of the infinite pleasure of hearing Sonya sing, loud and clear.

“Great Things”: One of the most common interpretational mistakes in music is the belief that when a singer delivers a song in the first person, the singer must be speaking about their own experience. In that interview with Clash Music (ibid), Sonya dissuaded fans from making that mistake.

If the lyrics could be interpreted as the singer’s personal manifesto, it’s not quite that straightforward. “[‘Great Things’] wasn’t necessarily about me,” she responds. “It’s about that time in your life when you’re full of the future, you’re full of possibilities and hope. You’re not destroyed by your experiences. It goes with the [album] title ‘On’. You’re switching on and it’s all ahead of you. You have a kind of mindset: ‘I want to do great things. I don’t want to work in an office’. It’s that possibility that’s in the song; and it’s a celebration of it.”

The celebration begins with three rough strums by the guitarists, using the chord progression Fmaj7-C-B. After a brief pause, Sonya launches into her vocal, cueing the band to enter full force on the words “great things.” It’s only then that we realize that the B chord was actually a tension chord leading to the root chord E major. The build-and-resolution lasts for a mere seven seconds, yet it works like a charm, allowing Sonya to deliver a revelation that cannot wait:

I wanna do great things
I don’t wanna compromise
I wanna know what life is
I wanna know everything
I wanna do great things
I don’t wanna compromise
I wanna know what love is
Is it something I do to myself?

While the song may not be about her, Sonya’s tone and delivery convey all the possibilities and hope one can imagine. Those lines serve as the chorus, which will be repeated four times with “I wanna know everything” alternating with “I wanna try everything.”

The part of life that has befuddled twenty-somethings for many generations can be summed up in the title of a song written by Cole Porter way back in 1928: “What Is This Thing Called Love?” Sonya attempts to answer that timeless question in the first verse, supported by a key change from E to A, where A-G repetitions reflect the back-and-forth playing out in her head.

All is fair in love and war,
Or so they say and so the saying goes,
But I’ve seen more broken hearts,
Than you can count the bullets in a war,

In the transitional passage that follows, she has to admit she still has much to learn.

Oh what do I know,
There’s gotta be so much I don’t know.

The transition begins with the final G chord of the verse, leading to a more complex chord pattern of Fmaj7-C-D-Fmaj7-C-B7 that achieves resolution in the next round in the chorus when we return to E major. Kudos to Glenn for his compositional excellence!

My favorite verse presents the modern version of “to err is human,” without reference to a divinity:

Never wanted many things
Except the chance to learn from my mistakes
Funny how you never learn but
Know them when they come around again

Yes, we are going to fuck things up again and again, but we can’t let that stop us in our quest to do great things.

“Great Things” is one of the most uplifting and honest songs ever written. The road of life is always bumpy, but when we’re knocked down, all we can do is pick ourselves up from the canvas and keep trying.

In my lifelong fantasy of being crowned Queen of the World, I would issue an edict ordering every twenty-something to listen to “Great Things” at least once a day.

“Natural Animal”: Unfortunately, some people find it impossible to have a positive orientation toward life. This group consists of those born to abusive or indifferent parents, kids dismissed as morons by incompetent, unfeeling teachers, and the unlucky many who are born into poverty. These poor souls often turn to crime as a way of getting even with a system that couldn’t care less about them.

The story in “Natural Animal” involves one of those unfortunates who make up the criminal element and winds up in prison because their partner in crime left them holding the bag.

In and out of prison,
Sitting in a pit of a cell,
Lick the blood of the wall,
Razor blade love letter hell,

So you left me there,
Didn’t care that they’d break down the door,
Were you really late,
Did you run away,
Left me to be caught?

Where are you now?
Where are you now?
You’re supposed to be a friend of mine,
You’re supposed to be a friend of mine.

The kid never learned to render to Caesar because Caesar treated him like shit:

In and out of trouble,
Pushed in a school full of fools,
I’m a natural animal,
Bent by the rules

While it may seem like an odd pairing to “Great Things,” everything I’ve read about Sonja tells me she’s a realist, not an idealist. Life can be wonderful, or it can be a bag of crap, and it’s important not to get too high or too low.

From a musical perspective, “Natural Animal” is one of my favorites on the album, combining bright guitar arpeggios with all-out power and an exceptionally strong and varied performance from the lead singer. The consensus on the web is that the song is a waltz in 3/4 time, but I think 6/8 is more accurate. In either case, it’s a nice break from standard 4/4, and the band plays the song to perfection.

“Go Away”: Do you ever get sick and tired of dealing with stupid people? Well, have I got a song for you!

It’s hard to listen to this song today and not think “MAGA,” but I’m in no mood to go down that road. A few years ago, Jean-François Marmion published a set of essays by professionals in the field of mental health and philosophy called The Psychology of Stupidity, where they explored the phenomenon of dumbassedness. Their findings were organized into five lessons by Lover of Books:

1. Stupidity is not a lack of intelligence. It’s a lack of self-awareness.
2. We don’t believe things because they’re true. We believe things because they feel good.
3. Your brain has a “default to truth” setting, and it’s easily exploited. (i.e., we are prone to believing rather than questioning, hence the belief in conspiracy theories)
4. Stupidity is contagious. (Duh.)
5. You are not the exception. Neither am I. (i.e., even the smartest people do stupid things).

What seems to irk Sonya the most is people who refuse to question their beliefs and consider the dogma an essential part of who they are. There’s no getting through to people who act as if they have all the answers while offering no objective evidence that those answers have any validity.

Here it comes, the fools parade
Another clueless masquerade
And they’re way too slow
A waste of space
Yes, they’re way too slow
Get out of my way

Go away, in the way, in the way, in the way, in the way . . .

Here we go on the sucker’s ride
Hearts and minds are paralyzed
And they’re way too stupid
They’ll be just fine
Yes, they’re way too stupid
A waste of time

Everybody’s looking for something
Everybody’s looking for clues
And they’re way too late, they missed the news
And they think they’re great with their points of view

You can’t fix stupid if stupid doesn’t want to be fixed, so it’s best to avoid them. It sounds like the band had a good time playing this one, and Sonya sounds relieved to get a nagging something off her chest. Befitting a song about stupid people, the chord pattern is quite simple: E-Abm-A-B.

“Pantyhose and Roses”: Speaking of stupid . . .

Many internet sources claim that the song is about the death of a conservative British Parliamentarian who died with a pair of women’s pantyhose on and an orange in his mouth, in a failed attempt to get off via autoerotic asphyxiation. As there is no mention in the song regarding that tabloid tragedy, allow me to set the record straight. The incident inspired the song, but Sonya used it to expose latent puritanism regarding sexual practices. “I just started thinking about sexual fantasies and how certain people in society are not allowed to have them or to have sex–they’re banned from even talking about it. But it’s something other people are encouraged to do.” In the interview with Melody Maker,  Sonya offered a more comprehensive explanation of her views on the subject of sexual freedom:

I like gay clubs – you can be what you want to be, dress how you want to dress. If I go dressed in S&M gear, no one’s going to say anything to me . . .  you never know, I might be living out my sexual fantasies.

Our song ‘Pantyhose And Roses’ is all about living a secret life, dressing how you want. I know loads of people who’ve got fantasies which involve dressing up the complete opposite of what they’re like – politicians dressing as babies, women in control wanting to be spanked, loads of guys wanting to be spanked. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

So if I want to dress as a schoolgirl, then I bloody well will – and I might even ask someone to spank me one day.”

I feel so validated.

The characters in this play are not politicians but a married couple in different stages of sexual repression. The wife who “leaves her brains at the door” and “drops her guts on the floor” (i.e, farts) banishes naughty thoughts from her mind and clings to the traditional role of a tidy little sexless housewife. The husband displays the typical habits of your Average Joe until he hits the sack:

He keeps his fingernails neat
He cleans the car once a week
He keeps an eye out for irresistible bargains
But every night in his sleep
He dreams of sex on the street
He longs for pantyhose and roses

The chorus repeats the same lines over and over: “It will change/it will never.” As it’s obvious that the couple never had an open and honest conversation about sexual preferences before they married, if the hubby were to tell his wife about his fantasies, she would freak out and run home to mommy in a heartbeat. Much to her regret, Sonya places the couple in the “it will never” camp:

All these years, all this time
Learn to suffer compromise
Turn away, tolerate
Learn to suffer what you hate

These poor souls reflect the larger problem Sonya referred to when explaining the inspiration for the song. Sexual repression exists in various degrees and forms everywhere on Earth. While I believe that rapists and pedophiles should be repressed, sex between consenting adults should be considered normal and healthy, regardless of sexual orientation or style. Unfortunately, that belief is not held by most religions and nations, so those who break the rules have to pretend to be someone they are not, a very uncomfortable situation indeed. Will that change? Not a fucking chance.

By the way, the music is ironically sexy, with plenty of syncopated thrusts, hot guitars, and a muscular performance from Andy on the kit.

“Something Hot in a Cold Country”: I would encourage anyone blessed with the artistic spirit to play this song whenever they hit a creative block or experience the rejection that comes with the territory. Set to a moderate, slow dance tempo that imbues the song with empathetic majesty, Sonja does her best to encourage the story’s failing artist to “hold on” despite the indifferent response from the general public to his offerings.

Did they try to tell you you’re strange,
Did they try to push you away,
Hold on.

Feed the fire, fan the flame,
Till the world remembers your name,
Till you find the sight that you see.

Feed the fire, fan the flame,
Till the world remembers your name,
Something hot in a cold country.

Hold on to your spirits,
You’re a pain, not a poet,
You’re special and they know it,
They can see
They throw a net that pins you to the ground,
Don’t let their blindness bring you down,
Be stubborn and enioy it like me.

I have to say that Sonya Madan has one of the most sincere voices I’ve ever heard. She means every word in a song, and in this one, her empathy is clearly heartfelt. This is one of the few songs that features an always-too-brief guitar solo from Glenn, and given the myriad possibilities offered by the melody and well-designed chord pattern, I would have loved to hear Glenn and Debbie trade off riffs in an extended guitar duet.

“Four Letter Word”: This celebration of positive and negative emotions doesn’t grab me from a lyrical perspective (I hate feeling hateful), but I have to commend Andy and the guitarists for delivering some of the hottest rock on the album.

“Nobody Like You”: Needless to say, I always get excited when I hear well-crafted lyrics depicting the erotic experience, and the verses in “Nobody Like You” certainly qualify:

Inside it harbors,
Desire bruises my skin,
So near, I’m hungry,
I’d like to have more,
In control, I’ve lost it,
I’d like to try it again,
It warms inside me,
We’re moving one step closer each time.

We fall, slow motion,
I taste your breath in my veins,
Like waves, vibrations,
It’s coming up again,
Let me climb inside you,
Caress your fever tongue,
Spread my wings around you,
And we can slide.

All very well and good, but when we get to the sing-songy chorus and its incessant repetition of “nobody likes you,” my vagina dries up, and I’m no longer in the mood to spread my wings. I attribute the mismatch between sexy and sweet to the recording process, as described by Sonya in an interview with Lawrence Poole on Leftlion: “ON was recorded very quickly (at Konk Studios in London), as we were riding the wave of success at the time and only had a small window of time to record it.” Her soulmate confirmed the story: “On was written on tour buses, in sound checks, and dressing rooms while we toured ‘Everyone’s Got One’,” reveals Johansson, who wrote all of the music. “We didn’t really have any spare time. We couldn’t sit back, reflect, and then start writing.”

”When you’re rushed, you tend to settle for good enough, which is never really good enough. Oh, well.

“In the Year”: This is one of the few songs on the album where vocal harmonies are employed, and best of all, I finally get to hear Glenn and Debbie trading riffs! Hooray for me!

The song is sort of an ode to a friend who morphed from a kid crying because his bicycle broke to a societal dropout, shaving his head during the first wave of punk, and “Joined a band with a broken down van.” Though Sonya mentions that he thought his life was “really swell,” he seems to be uncertain about his future. Sonya bucks him up with a bit of wise advice: follow your desires!

It will come, it will go,
But you hold on to what you know,
You play your part,
You play your part,
You only fall for what you really want to,
You only fall for what you really want to.

Hold on to those encouraging words, because the next song leads us into the darkness.

“Dark Therapy”: Sonya is unusually open about her life experiences, including those that most people would be ashamed to admit. From Westword.com:

“I wasn’t eating. I sort of started wasting away. I was running on empty for so long I thought I’d better get some hypnotherapy and sort myself out.” During one session, she elaborates, “I started seeing some very extreme imagery. It was always complete left and complete right, extreme beauty and extreme destruction.”

“Dark Therapy” represents a big leap from Britpop to something combining alternative rock and progressive leanings. The mood is dark and dreamy, enhanced by Sonya’s beautifully ethereal two-part vocals. Of all the songs on the album, this is the one that reveals Echobelly’s vast potential, and it pisses me off that they had to deal with all that legal bullshit instead of continuing their exploration of music beyond Britpop without interruption.

The guitarists open the song, with Debbie playing soft strums while Glenn throws in a few blues-tinged riffs. As the guitarists will play an essential part in establishing the strangeness of the hypnotic experience, we can count the intro as a bit of foreshadowing of what lies ahead. Sonya enters with her clear and lovely voice, sharing what she is experiencing as she goes under while the guitarists extend the pattern in the intro:

High above the rooftops,
Higher than the Milky Way,
Slipping through the hourglass,
Shooting up the desert plain,
You are one life older than before,
But you can’t stop this chill,
Now you’re falling in slow motion,
Though the air is still.

With one strong stroke on his guitar, Glenn cues the rhythm section to provide the arrangement with more heft, and Sonya raises her voice(s) in response. The lines may appear to be spoken by the hypnotist, but it’s more likely that Sonya is hearing an echo of what the practitioner promised to provide:

If you close your eyes than I can take you all the way,
Let me close your eyes and I will take it all the way.

She then takes a moment to get her bearings and is reassured that she’s not alone.

You are on the outside,
Hands upon the window sill,
I am on the inside,
Carving up the hunter’s kill.
‘Cause If you close your eyes than I can take you all the way,
Let me close your eyes and I will take it all the way. (I will slide away)

The band continues in power mode through Sonya’s final journey, a bizarre collage of images involving symbols of war, extreme weather, environmental destruction, a pleasant ride on the waves, pornography, and mating behaviors. Essentially, she’s experiencing the world as we know it, with all its faults and occasional pleasures.

Cruising on a missile,
Cruising on a desert plain,
Wading through a minefield,
Wading through the monsoon rain,
Surfing on an oil spill,
Surfing on a perfect wave,
Porn upon the airwaves,
Rituals of the mating game.

After another round of the chorus, the guitarists take over, with Glenn’s guitar screaming like a banshee while Debbie provides grounding with a combination of strums and solid rock arpeggios. After the final presentation of the chorus, the music gradually devolves into random sounds that may be mimicking the sounds in Sonya’s brain as she eases out of hypnosis.

Though the arrangement is diverse and complex, the chord pattern is incredibly simple: Bm-A-E. When you listen to the song closely, the B note manifests itself as a drone of sorts, providing continuity while the guitarists dance around the root note. I would imagine that they spent more time on this song than on any of the others, and it shows.

“Worms and Angels”: Now THIS is a waltz in 3/4 time. Unfortunately, I can’t make sense of the lyrics. I do like the thought that “true love is deathless,” but I absolutely refuse to sleep in the ivy with worms and angels. While some have said that the song has a folk feel, the feel is ruined by excessive volume and a hyperactive filter on the guitar. I think that Echobelly would have been better off ending the album with “Dark Therapy” and calling it a day.

*****

Echobelly has resurrected themselves now and then over the years, releasing three new albums in the 21st Century and continuing to tour. One of those tours celebrated the 30th anniversary of On in 2025. I’ve sampled their later albums and was happy to hear how they diversified their sound and that Sonya had not lost her lyrical prowess. Though some critics refuse to classify On as a great album, I would argue that even with its flaws, it packs as much punch and more meaningful lyrics when compared to many Britpop albums.