SORA, Scorpion Moon

The Canadian singer SORA has something very nice going on. Her voice is strong and very heartfelt, rangy and excellently nuanced. She sings a sort of folk-ethic, folk-rock faux-celtic new-age tinged contemporary prog music, maybe a present-day equivalent of the band Renaissance if you remember them. You can hear her and her backing musicians to good advantage on the album Scorpion Moon (Factor ASH201301).

The songs have strength and lyrical lift. The arrangements are very well-wrought. The vocals have great beauty. SORA is one of those singer-songwriters that doesn't come along often. If you like the idea of a lyrical, poetic archaism recalling as in a dream another earlier time, another unknown place, this will get to you nicely, I think!

Cat Power, Sun

Singer, songwriter, alt queen Cat Power is aging well musically. Her album Sun (Matador) shows that well. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy and then another storm that knocked me off the net a good part of last quarter, I am running a bit behind. Sun has been reviewed and duly acclaimed out there already. What can I add?

I can add that good songs and interesting arrangements make or break the sort of alt that flirts at the edges of pop yet transcends the bleakly dismal results that usually prevail in the great wasteland today.

Anyway, Cat Power didn't sing at the inauguration and I don't suppose we should expect much from our State events from a cultural point of view. No one would accuse Cat Power of donning continually the evil falseness of voice-pitch correction software or other slickly glib tricks that are a big part of the music machine today. So though she may be popular, she could I suppose never be mainstream enough for some musical rep of consensus, and I like that. Political consensus is one thing, musical another. We don't need a common denominator in music and Cat Power isn't that. And that's very cool with me.

If there's a wrong note, it's there, though I hear none on the album, offhand. She does do a little with the digital voice enhancement thing, but quite sparingly and seemingly for effect.

Lyrics that must be heard and understood and have poetic fullness, music that doesn't run through the formulas, a kind of believable human-ness, that's Cat Power to me and she gets my applause for this new one. She doesn't have to sound cute, young and coy and she doesn't. That means she can grow older and still have credibility, no?

Good job!

Thurston Moore's Demolished Thoughts: Beyond Sonic Youth, Beside Sonic Youth

It's the Monday after the passage of Hurricane Irene from my area and I am glad to get back to work. A shout-out of sympathy for any who did not fare as well as we did.

Today, Demolished Thoughts (Matador), the latest album from Sonic Youth leader, singer, guitarist and songwriter Thurston Moore.

Anyone who follows his career knows that the solo albums are not exactly the same full-band onslaughts as the Sonic's works. And that is true of Demolished Thoughts as well. It centers on Thurston's trademark guitar tuning and interesting chordal sequences, here on 6- or 12-string acoustic. There are good songs, somewhat in a cosmic contemplativeness mode. His voice is front and center communicating the essence of the lyrics and melody.

And there are some nicely put together cello/string parts and some nice touches with a harp now and then. I suppose you could say it's psychedelic light. But seriously in IS that in Thurston's very inimitable way.

If you like what he does in the Sonic's bag, once you get used to this, you'll like this one also.

It is music with a lot of depth, nice little touches, subtlety. So it's a winner then.

Andy Fite's "20 from '10" for his Swinging Guitar, Voice, and Singular Songs

Andy Fite is no ordinary musical fellow. And what is ordinary? Never mind that for now. He plays the acoustic (flat top?) guitar in the solid-four swing of Django's Hot Club or Al Casey of Fats Waller's must illustrious small group. He writes songs that somehow reflect David Frishberg, Fats and something just Andy.

His 20 From '10 (Other Street Music) gives you the 20 songs he penned last year. They are in a sort of tongue-in-cheek cabaret style and they address in a funny-sad way the little as well the big events in a relationship, his own Woody Allenesque insecurities, and life-political-cultural frustrations. It's unique and it's lots of fun. Is it for everybody? What is? You have to be comfortable with the ironic cabaret style, I would think.

He is one in a million, a songwriter of originality, a vocalist who performs his songs. . . like he wrote them (because, duh, he DID), and a guitarist who functions mostly in an accompanying role here, but does so with a good handle on what he wants to do.

Marika Hughes Spins Her Personal Songwriting Cloak on "The Simplest Thing"

Marika Hughes plays the cello, so well that she also has a solo cello release (which we'll be covering on the Gapplegate Music Review). She also writes and sings songs that have a very personal stamp. The Simplest Thing (DD Records 002) gives you 11 tracks that showcase her art.

She is joined by various acoustic and a few electric instrumentalists. There are country and blues influences. Her voice is in a deeper, almost contralto range and her songs have an indie rock flavor.

I found that she has captured a view, a set of feelings with lyrics-melodies that bring them out well. Her music has an art song substantiality at times, though perhaps not fully realized as yet. Other times there is a kind of pedestrian immediacy that does not go at it in a way that might come off as insincere. She is direct and she is what she is.

I'm glad I listened and look forward to new releases and further growth as time passes.

It is a different sort of disk from an artist with much potential.

Singer-Songwriter Allison Moorer and "Crows"

I don't know much about Allison Moorer. She sings, she writes songs. She wrote all the songs on her second album Crows (Ryko 11004). Somebody plays acoustic guitar here and there, but since the album does not list the musicians I don't know who it is.

When I came of age in publishing before the digital era there were graphic design do's and don'ts that we all paid attention to, because breaking them made it impossible to read the type. Those who design CD jackets today break all the rules and the result is that the type functions as a precious aesthetic object that is there for enhancing the design. The words aren't read. They cannot be. Crows isn't as bad as most, but it simply leaves out things like who is playing, so...

Anyway Allison writes alt-pop ditties that are attractive. The lyrics are a more-or-less serious sort of thing. She sings them with a lovely voice that has a certain affinity with Sarah McLaughlin. It's nice.