Lady Sings It Better

It is a testament to the bewitching power of a catchy tune that the lyrics are the last thing people pay attention to. Sometimes the most famous songs belie some pretty dubious messages. Take for example, Billy Joel’s 'She’s Always A Woman.' It’s a beautiful paean to the endurable loveliness of womankind, right? Nope. With lyrics equating being "always a woman” to such things as “She’ll promise you more than the Garden of Eden/Then she'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding,” it seems that Mr Joel thinks the fairer sex is a gender of Judases. The same could be said for much of popular music written by men.

Lady Sings It Better, a six-piece all-girl vocal cabaret act dressed like dishevelled Pollyannas, have made it their mission to remove the waxy build-up of misogyny from our ears. Armed with tonges in cheeks, slick banter, and heavenly harmonies they are reinterpreting bright pop hits by the likes of Joel, The Knack and Otis Redding, to show music's dark underbelly.

This is no exercise in academic deconstructionism. You could be completely oblivious to the show’s subversive nature and have a total ball. Backed by an incredibly tight three-piece band, the sextet masterfully belt out Michael Jackson medleys, give AC/DC a Mary Poppins make-over, and make Nine Inch Nails’ most bestial impulses sound positively civilised.

The tunes are big, with the bigger message there if you want it. But it is at its strongest when the ladies reclaim pop for the girls. It will make you want to burn your music penned by men. Or dance. Or both.