Joe Sparks has shared ‘Pure Blue Gertrude’, the latest single from his forthcoming album ‘Regina In Her Purple Coveralls Inside The Circle’, out October 30.

We featured ‘Nice Little Refrain’ earlier this year, and since then Sparks has also released ‘One With Everything’ and ‘Miss Ya Miss Alyssa’. ‘Pure Blue Gertrude’ is a little more inward-looking, dealing with friendship, betrayal and the point where you realise somebody may not be there for you in quite the way you thought.

Sparks wrote, recorded and produced the album himself, and plays every instrument and sound across the record, apart from vocal accompaniment by Taylor Bowen on the opening track, ‘One With Everything’.

That independence is a big part of how the album works. Sparks can move from one idea to another without having to make everything fit the same mould, and the twelve tracks cover quite a bit of ground.

‘Pure Blue Gertrude’ sits about halfway through the record, following ‘Miss Ya, Miss Alyssa’ and leading into ‘I See The Lady’. Elsewhere, titles such as ‘I Would Be The Fish In Your Dish’, ‘Clone’ and ‘I Have A Soul’ give some idea of the slightly sideways humour that turns up throughout Sparks’ writing.

The album closes with ‘I Have A Soul’, while its title track, ‘Regina’, sits near the beginning of the record and is intended to remain fairly open to interpretation.

For Sparks, the whole thing has been very much a one-person operation. He is a Berklee College of Music graduate, but the music does not sound particularly interested in showing off that training. The arrangements are often busy, though the songs themselves remain the main point.

Headline photo: Pamela Michelle

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