an tha wrote:
Aways a bit reluctant to make too many judgements about a new record until I have lived with it for a while - new music excitement, especially with favourite artists can cloud my judgement.....But, I am very excited about this record after just a couple of listens - very excited.....
Same. I’m still waiting for my vinyl copy to arrive—next week, hopefully—but after a few digital listens I am really enjoying the new record. It feels like entering another world, moreso than any of her other albums (maybe with the exception of
White Chalk—I think the two share strong DNA); it will probably take many more listens before the album unfolds itself for me fully. But even on the surface it’s beautiful and easily replayable.
The hazy, out of focus soundscapes they came up with for these songs are brilliant and evocative—they seem somehow both tangible and elusive at the same time. You zoom in on a sound and then it warps into something else and then it’s gone. There are perhaps a few moments on the album where I wish they had gone deeper with the modular synths, let their noise take over the track, but I understand and appreciate the restraint.
Polly’s vocals are consistently amazing, the singing during the second part of “Prayer at the Gate” sounds so raw but in a way we haven’t really heard her sing before (though the vocal nods to her previous works on “A Noiseless Noise” and the title track are great, too). Even when her voice stays in her more natural range, the phrasing is often surprising, like on “Seem an I”.
I’m pretty sure the LP won’t attract back people who lost interest in Polly’s music once she stopped rocking out almost 20 years ago, and I get why many fans who love her later work will find it incomprehensible due to the obscure, non-narrative lyrics written in a half-forgotten dialect, but I think those willing to dig into it will find it very rewarding. I am also very much looking forward to listening to the album on my headphones during a walk in the woods; feels like a good match.