Customer Reviews

Hold on Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Indie talents Azure Ray bring a beautiful set of songs in "Hold On Love", a well-accomplished effort with heartfelt voices and lyrics that never come close to sappy and overly sentimental territory. These are subtle, lo-fi and deep compositions, slices of life to hear and absorb in a melancholic afternoon while lying on the couch. A good term of comparison would be singer-songwriter Aimee Mann or a more intimate, quiet, female version of Elliot Smith. Another alternative little gem worth discovering.

Taking nothing from their own uniquely sonorous voices, I find Azure Ray at an evocative intersection of Suzanne Vega, Dar Williams, and Margo Timmins of The Cowboy Junkies. There is an anti-heroic quality of pastoral loneliness in their voices, like whispers sung; highly recommended.

Everyone gets depressed. This is awesome for those hopeless nights when you don't think things will change for the better. It's a soundtrack for knowing that it's OK if things never get better. It's awesome when no other CD seems to fit. Beautiful and poetic, it brings the beautiful aspects of life - including the sad ones - to the forefront. I prefer Maria's tracks overall, but my favorite track on here is "Sea of Doubts" fronted by Orenda - so beautiful.

This group I just found recently and instantly I was drawn in. Sea of Doubts is my favorite song I think. Look to Me, Hold on Love and These White Lights Will Bend to Make Blue are also really great songs as well. These songs I can listen to over and over..I love these songs.

This album became an instant favorite of mine. Some tracks are very mellow as well as melodic. Something to wind the day down with. Not something to hear on the road. Great with wine and candles. Enhanced CD has the video for their single and a second video of a live performance of we are mice. Kewl!

Azure Ray to me sounds a lot like- Maria Taylor's songs. Both who remind me of The Late,But Great Elliott Smith. Soft voice singing tunes are upbeat and beautifully sad, but true story telling lycrics.

First and foremost Orenda and Maria are deeply introspective and unpretentious poets.
They are mere mortals and they embrace, yet do not crush, that fact. Nor do they see
fit to make it an altar on which to sacrifice their inner children. The culmination
is that of ancient souls very much aware of their current journey through whimsical
youth. That and a profound sense that both the old and the new are keenly aware of
and watching the other with curious fascination. They articulate these things with
a magical ease that would make the best of deeply human sentiment driven poets to
snap all their crayons in half and take a sabbatical in hopes of losing all the lofty
veneer that weights them near to drowning in waters five syllables deep. They don't
get too specifically personal (no songs that tell us the names of everyone they know
and love and hate - a thing that is all too prevalent in music lately) and they don't
dole out huge clay tables of sage lesson. Instead they discuss experience in the
context of experience.

Secondly they both have multitudes of identity in their voices. Energetic and happy
children etched with young women in and out of love and overcast by clouds of the
weary who have been worn much by experience. They sing sing softly. To many a singer
that is a death card as the human voice usually sounds very different at various
volumes and we live in a culture that charms the the loud and often harsh. Yet they
thrive in the serene end of the pool and again it is magically transposed to the ear.
Their voices compliment one another on an order that is seldom experienced. Get to
love one and you'll melt to a euphoric puddle of goo when you hear them both together.

One of the hallmarks of Azure Ray has been an oft song that sort of drones along the
same base few chords and/or rythems. They not only pull it off such that one doesn't
feel they've been 'droned' but they go so far as to somehow keep it sounding fresh.
I suspect part of that has to do with their skill and talent as musicians equaling
that of every aspect previously mentioned. Their choice of harmonies and rythems are
such that they compliment this style. But not everything they do is like that. In
fact on this album they demonstrate a most impressive harmonically rich song 'We Are
Mice' that really tugs the listener in with it's dark delicious alternating dissonance
and consonance with verse must surely have been penned by someone with firsthand
knowledge of clinical depression:

'it's all in the eyes
the reckless way we dream to die
our past is our future
...
we'll touch hands on the street
smile and keep moving on towards the heat
...
it's our lot in life'

And again they depart in 'If You Fall' which is anything but a drone. It's major
chords progress in half steps with a joyful vivaciousness that will have you
bouncing up and down in your seat to tempo. The lyrics of this song fall in
thematically with the the whole 'Hold On Love' thread and have elements of
optimism, fascination, curiosity, and somewhat tame optimism:

'let's talk and we'll fill the air with imagery that lasts forever
...
if you fall will you get up
...
you drift too far will you swim towards the shore
and if you fell in love will you hold on to it
...
you speak so sweet with words so delicate
a glass i hope will never shatter'

And of as mentioned the weary and worn exemplified in 'Look To Me':

'i hold your hand as you slip from me
as i watch your breath i say to myself one day this will all end
...
but i know you're right as i begin to pack
without raising your eyes i hear you sigh oh you'll be back
because i look to you and you look to me
we're a real f****d up family'

This is Azure Ray's finest collection to date. I see they've both done solo
albums and in reading an interview with Orenda Fink I was left with the
impression that while things are still good they are feeling the need for
time away from one another. Not surprising at all but tragic if that should
turn into a permenant arrangement. I understand they've been touring apart,
one as Azure Ray and the other with collaborative efforts with other musicians
which fortifies my concern. While both are good as individuals it would be
a terrific loss to lose them as a team. I'm always amazed at what hits the
airwaves and music videos; at who is raking in sickening amounts of money
and who still tour as if on a serious budget. These two women are the real
deal. If you like what you've read give them a shot. If you like your shot
then spread the word and buy a copy for a friend or two. It's up to people
like you and I to force an obviously corrupt music industry's hand to play
a much higher caliber of music consistently. Your dollar is the vote that
counts.

Best Wishes, -frank-

Beautiful. Every positive adjective known to man.

Enough said.

My story about Azure Ray is far less involved than my Death Cab For Cutie story, but here goes.

I discovered Azure Ray on the Saddle Creek 50 compilation, and went out and bought Burn & Shiver and the November ep. Hold On Love is a fantastic step in a new direction. Producer Eric Bachmann (Archers of Loaf, Crooked Fingers frontman) seems to be directing them nicely. Since I actually believe in supporting my favorite musicians, I showed up on release day and shelled out the cash for what is already one of my favorite releases of the year.

Oh, and since at home most of my music goes into a couple of mega-changers, I combine a lot of albums with the ol' CD burner. The November ep, the unreleased track from the Saddle Creek 50 compilation, the entire Hold On Love album and the b-sides from The Drinks We Drank Last Night single fit perfectly on an 80 minute CD-R, with a few seconds left. Hooray!

The song "We are Mice" is great, and the young boy in the video is very good!