nixsight

This week I seem to be suffering the brain-wrongs, as does my computer. Also, the index finger on my right hand is paining me at the knuckle… I ACHES! So I thought I’d try to listen to some pretty, new music – or at least, music that was new to me.

It hasn’t worked out exactly right. These female singer-songwriters were a lot more perplexing than I’d have expected.

Our Hell – Emily Haines

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I didn’t know Emily Haines before hearing her album over the last couple of weeks – apparently the second solo album from the lady, from 2006. I get the impression her collaborative stuff tends to rock out with it’s cock out.

But this album, “Knives Don’t Have Your Back” is an altogether more flouncy affair, with a smoky vocal played over sometimes pedestrian, sometimes dramatic piano-centric arrangements that evoke cinema noir and emotional, dramatic meetings in black-and-white European alleyways. Sort of.

This track doesn’t sound as much like that as the rest of the cd, but it’s probably the easiest route into the album.

I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of Haines. The music appeals to me, as it ranges from jazz to classical by way of movie score, but her voice, appealing as it is, is still falling a little shy of the female singer-songwriters that she most reminds me of, and that have more personality to them. She’s halfway between Feist and Jenny Lewis, and can’t quite be heard over their more distinct voices.

Joanna Newsom – Swansea

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I’m still trying to get the hang of Joanna Newsom. I’ll admit to being thrown by her voice at first. Which isn’t to say that I found it too shrill, peculiar and odd – all of which it might well be for some people, but you know, I used to love the Bjork as well, before she decided that buying her records was irresponsible behaviour and stopped rewarding it with listenable albums, and Newsom’s delivery has something in common with the odd little Icelandic lady.

I just found it that little bit too difficult to parse, the first few listens-to – without having a sense of her lyrics, and alongside the music – which is very pretty but, despite being probably groundbreaking for harp music, is still probably a little twee and spare to the untrained ear – it’s hard to know whether ultimately the pay-off is going to be worth the effort that one puts in to get the hang of it.

However, I’m glad that I’ve been stuck with her in the iPod shuffle for the last few days. It took a while, but I have started to fall in love with her turn of phrase, and the pictures that she draws with words. After a while, you start to realise that there’s something very traditional about what she’s doing with her songs – she’s telling stories and sharing emotions, and picking a delightfully florid and literate way of doing it.

Her voice still confuses me a little, as it rests across the gulf between Billie Holiday and old-timey cowboy folk, but with each extra try, I find more and more to enjoy about these songs. In fact, my opinion has changed since I started writing this!

Inside A Boy – My Brightest Diamond

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I don’t think it’s unfair to draw the odd comparison between My Brightest Diamond and All About Eve – there was a time, after all, before I had my opinions tarnished by my irritation at their fanbase, when I really loved the ‘Eve.

And Shara Worden’s classical and dramatic and beautiful lead vocals, against the prettily sculpted and ornate instrumental backing, at least on “A Thousand Shark’s Teeth” – which is the album I’m listening to – do remind me of the less sedate outings by that earlier band.

At times, as you can hear on this track, the party gets almost rowdy, a few goths bobbing around as if they’re dangerous in the corner, and Shara’s lyrics veering more towards self-examination and self-mutilation than floaty introspection. On occasion, I was even reminded of the Cocteau Twins, before their heads were totally in the clouds circa “Heaven Or Las Vegas”.

At the moment, I’ve listened to My Brightest Diamond less than Newsom or Haines, and I’ve managed to get an idea – perhaps an unfair one – of them as an ideal band to listen to while playing some World Of Darkness game. This isn’t an insult, mind – I’ve just found them better suited so far to being in the background, and they have the drama, angst and prettiness, with occasional gothic – but not Goth – flourishes, that I’d want if I was doing some atmospheric rpg-ing.

I’m sure once I’ve listened to them a little more, I’ll find something that distinguishes them more as a band worth listening to for the sake of listening to them, but right now they feel more like pleasant wallpaper.