Carol Hodge - EffortLess InSecurity (2024)

Carol Hodge rounds off another busy year with her fifth studio album EffortLess InSecurity. It’s a collection of heartfelt songs which dig deep into Carol’s own psyche, with a darkened edge exposing some of her innermost thoughts and feelings, all of which is delivered with her powerhouse vocals and soaring melodies which are a classic element of her sound.

Yorkshire based singer-songwriter Carol Hodge is an artist who definitely does not let the grass grow under her feet and 2024 has proved this once again. Aside from her ongoing involvement with the Steve Ignorant Band which takes the incendiary songbook of Crass to various corners of the globe, Carol continues to provide keyboard and backing vocals for Ginger Wildheart, has completed two UK tours with Kansas City’s Julia Othmer to celebrate the output from their continuing songwriting collaboration, and has also returned to her long-term career in providing private music lessons. Remarkably, in spite of this breathtakingly busy schedule of activity, Carol has still found time to write and record what is now her fifth studio album, EffortLess InSecurity.

As the self-confessed “seven fingered piano playing singer songwriter……. who writes songs about my continuing existential crisis,” Carol’s songwriting always displays such a range of emotions from the deeply poignant to the hugely uplifting with soaring melodies and cathartic choruses, using the full range of her powerhouse vocals to immense effect. She sings about politics, love and heartbreak, often digging deep into personal and emotive topics, but always in a way that is so easy to resonate with and also with a cynical yet endearing sense of optimism.

As for EffortLess InSecurity, Carol explains that it “is very much a deep dive into my psyche, and was written during a period when I began a new romantic relationship, which threw up all kinds of revelations about my mental landscape and my behaviour. Shortly after that, I had the realisation that I am a neurodivergent, which completely transformed my view of the 42 years I’ve spent on this planet and I am still processing the mixture of comfort, grief and acceptance a diagnosis evokes. As the title of the album suggests, it’s very easy for me to feel insecure, but I also need to make less of an effort with everything, once I feel loved and seen.” And this provides a very strong reference point to explain why this album has perhaps a much harder edge to its sound than her previous four albums as it plunders some of the darker corners of her thoughts and feelings.