Zoë

Zoe achieved significant success in 1991 when her first single, the Europop cover "Sunshine on a Rainy Day," climbed to number 4 on the British charts, though the track had first appeared the previous year and peaked inside the Top 60. Follow-up releases "Lightning" and "Holy Days" made little impression, and her solo debut likewise failed to connect, prompting friction with label executives over mandatory promotional shows at seedy European discos that nearly severed the partnership. At age 16, after departing stage school, she had entered her initial group, the soul ensemble Cacique. By 1995 she had regrouped and begun crafting fresh material alongside her partner Youth, whom she encountered during an audition for Brilliant at his Butterfly Studios in Brixton. Upon submitting the songs to M&G Records, the newly appointed A&R director Jack Steven responded enthusiastically and secured a simultaneous American release through RCA Records. Youth performed most of the instrumentation on Hammer, yet the pair’s personal relationship deteriorated amid the recording, leaving him to ponder the targets of certain sharp lyrics. In place of the earlier debut’s somewhat saccharine pop, the album offered bittersweet words and stark vignettes, illustrated by "Love Is the Beast" and the title song. Zoe’s engagement with Irish and Indian traditional sounds surfaced clearly in the Buddhist mantra "R.A.M" and "Down the Mountain," while "The Lion Roars" emerged from a collaboration with Anthony Thistlewaite, formerly of the Waterboys, and was co-produced in Dublin by respected Irish producer Donal Lunny, with uillean pipes supplied by Davy Spillane.