Gorgeous Haunt
Trixie Whitley’s latest release is a more refined sound overall
than when I first heard her with Daniel Lanois in Black Dub - reviewed here; a Noisetrade Mixtape here - and I miss a
little the rawer sound of that vocal, but the tracks on this album are classy,
and there are elements of BD’s more sultry singing [and similar atmospheric
guitar work] on a song like Eliza’s Smile,
where the slow ruminating pace allows the singing to dominate, here with such
emotion in the rises and falls across tone and texture. This is a sublime
offering, horns near its end adding depth to the brooding tone.
Soft Spoken Words
is another atmospheric soundscape of beautiful menace, the soulful vocal chorus
ironically heightening the aura with angelic harmony. The vocal expansion here is intense.
As I focus on the album’s second half with respectively tracks five and six, seventh
New Frontiers is pop-electronic with
repeating vocal lines, and eighth Witness layers sweet harmonies over Whitley’s
fulsome solo lines.
Closer Visitor is
a piano-based, sultry ballad with exquisite vocal. The rasp and soar in the
singing is so natural, and so penetrating in its emotive impact. The mention of
melancholy is wholly empathised through
that sound and also the lyrics of lose thyself
in a well of temptation in a puddle of love, as I sip from the grounds of
mental alienation. Hauntingly gorgeous.
This is an excellent album from an excellent singer deserving
much more recognition.
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| Photo: Athos Burez |
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