Any offspring of a famous musician is expected to live up the family name and enter the music business. Hollie Cook, daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and former Culture Club singer Jeni Cook, was ushered into a world that surrounded her with music. Her career path was almost pre-determined, and sure enough she’s making sweet, sweet music as intended.
She’s not the lead singer of a punk or British New Wave band though. Although she did drop out of a performing arts school to provide backing vocals and played keyboard for reformed The Slits’ EP ‘Revenge of the Killer Slits’, Hollie moved on to pastures new, collaborating with The Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown and Jamie T before working with producer Mike Pelancoli (better known as ‘Prince Fatty’) on her self-titled debut.
Pelancoli’s guiding hand – along with a few key track collaborations with established reggae guitarist Dennis Bovell and post-revival The Pioneers vocalist George Agard – have helped Hollie produce a smooth reggae album with strong mixing, some standout tracks and a true embracing of the traditional (and best) reggae sound. Hollie’s voice is golden, a serene angelic quality floating across summery beats and the whole album flows superbly.
This year, Pelancoli released a ‘dub’ version of the debut: both that and the original album can be listened to here. Hollie appeared on Jools Holland’s show last year to perform ‘Milk & Honey’; that’s below.
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