Angels Women...IDHA...Get undressed in an exciting way

Idha (Idha Ovelius)

Idha is an artist I first heard of in 1994 when a song of hers was played on Mark & Lard's BBC Radio 1 evening show - and I was hooked by her straight away.  Idha arrived on my scene at just the right time.  I was starting my exams for my final year at university and, was understandably getting worried and tense about what was going to happen to me in my future.  Idha's very music, with her soft and dreamy voice was just the tonic I was looking for.

I unfortunately know very little personal information about Idha, which I suppose is one reason why I hold her in such a high regard.  Originally from Sweden, Idha moved to England and met up and eventually married Andy Bell.  Idha and Andy's shared passion that brought them together was finding out that they both had a shared interest in the classic 60's group The Byrds.  Andy, of course, is a well known artist in his own right, starting his career in the great indie band Ride.  He then fronted his own band in Hurricane #1, and at present, is a guitarist in Oasis.  As I understand, Idha now lives back in Sweden with Andy.

Idha has only ever released two albums (which is a crying shame), and has released five singles.  Every song she has sung on her albums and singles are worth their weight in gold.  Idha means so much to me psychologically, that she's an artist that will stay with me for eternity.

Below I have summarised all of Idha's (known) commercial releases, starting with Idha's albums and singles in chronological order.  As with Idha's albums, all her singles feature great cover photos.  Idha's Going Down South looks as though it's been taken from a video, but I don't know if it was taken from a promo video for the song or not.  All of Idha's singles B-sides are magnificent songs, and stand up on merit on their own.  An Idha compilation album would not be complete without a collection of her singles B-sides.  Additionally, at the very bottom of this page I have included all of the Idha magazine articles I have kept.  Click on any of the pictures below to download a much higher resolution picture.

Melody Inn

Melody Inn is a beautiful (mainly) acoustic album with hints of Americana.  Much of Idha's music and style on this album is strongly influenced by artists like Gram Parsons and The Faces.  Whilst writing or co-writing the majority of this album, Idha does include three wonderful cover songs, written by Janis Ian, Gram Parson and Tim Hardin.

Troublemaker

Despite the importance of Idha's first album to me, this is my favourite of the two.  Troublemaker has a much more assured sound to its predecessor, it also much more emotionally engaging.  The songwriting and production qualities, along with the vocals are much more confident, whilst still retaining Idha's beautifully idealic sounding voice.