Customer Reviews

Love Is Blind

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

 

 

This recording was likeable on the first listen, but after repeated listenings, it has grown to be one of my absolute favorites. This cd is a rarity to me because very few cd's have I loved every song. I love every song here. Every echo, every strum, every bird call...it's shear perfection. This group deserves your attention!It is now June of 2005, and I am back listening to this remarkable CD. I just noticed that quitly in the background there are similar sounds in some songs that can be heard in others that actually link all the songs together sort of. There is a bird like sound that appears quietly in the background from time to time. This CD is so cool!Victoria Llyod's vocals are so gentle and powerful that they become the music, and flow and soar with it and melt into the songs instead of here's the band and here's the singer. The first song, "Pieces" sounds like a single. It's a very very good song, but more radio friendly than the rest. It echoes and the birds are in the background again...Only Victoria could pull the second song "Twentyfour Years" off. It requires a subtle soaring vocal...and she pulls it off flawlessly. Her vocals are confident, with out being conceeded, and she can sing natually without goofy vocal acrobatics.The bird calls are back on "Mirror" and they get more prominent here....simply gorgeous.....I was driving to work one day and was rounding a curve on a mountain as a pink sunrise was occuring...and "Abyss" came on my car stereo....never have I heard a stunning sunrise such as this...The vocals are again amazing on "Silence".The guitar work is extremely compelling...My least favorite track is "He Is Here". It just is kind of a song someone else might do. I like it, but it's not my fav."Close To Me" has an edge and grungy guitar....it's way cool! And the vocals soar once again..."Warm" starts out quiet...and ends up glowing and subtlely powerful by the end...like a glowing sunrise..The clunky "Not Like Me" is a beautiful sour sounding songThe CD concludes with a beautiful song "Love Is Blind" I can't stop playing this one with it's echoing piano...and a scratching noise for the beat. They don't make songs as perfect as this, do they? YES THEY DO...and this cd is it!This cd is like foating in the sky...looking at the sun...looking at the clouds..looking at the ground and the lights,...and the people...and feeling love and loved....and lonliness....hope...and despare...There have only been a handful of near perfect albums:1] this one2] Lene Lovich "Flex"3] kate Bush "The Dreaming"4] Gary Numan "Exile"5] Siouxsie And The Bashees "JuJu"

Claire Voyant is actually a three person group that consists of Victoria Lloyd (vocals), Chris Ross (programming), and Ben Fargen (guitars). Together they create some amazing songs and weave a certain magic that's continually felt in their music that's haunting yet profoundly rich with elegance. 'Time and the Maiden' is a brilliant album all around and of course it's going to be hard to beat but I'm glad they didn't try to duplicate what can't be repeated. It's good to experiment, and while it doesn't always work to their advantage I applaud musicians for attempting new ways to evolve as an artist. They haven't strayed too terribly far from their original sound (they still venture into dreamy electronica) but most of the material heard on 'Love Is Blind', which I admit took a long time to grow on me, is a bit more upbeat than usual with ethereal "pop" sensibilities. Victoria's singing is also more airy here, which I find to be gorgeous on "Abyss", in particular; however, I still find her singing to be powerful and moving. And the messages conveyed in their lyrics, as well as the beautiful and emotionally charged melodies, touch you like a warm ray of light on a cold yet sunny winter's day while remaining dark and hypnotically mysterious.

And FYI, the meaning of clairvoyant is 'one possessing the supposed power to see what cannot be perceived by the senses'.

Four years ago it was a complete fluke that "Love Is Blind" ended up in my music collection. Its ethereal sound took me by surprise, and not only that, the mood through the CD varied from melancholy to hopeful making sure not to leave one in a cadaverous state. The vocals are both haunting and heavenly making one unsure if they are indeed in hell or paradise.

It was this CD that opened me up to a whole new world of "dark wave" sounds and musicians including Cocteau Twins, Hungry Lucy, Collide, which then lead me to the unearthly sounds of Dead Can Dance and Delirium. If you recognize any of these musicians, you just may enjoy "Love Is Blind". If you enjoy "Love Is Blind" but desire something harder and with more beat I recommend checking out Clair Voyant's collaboration CD "Time Again".

This is a wonderful album full of exquisite pop melodies. Unfortunately, Victoria Lloyd's silky-smooth voice is not showcased as it was on the previous two albums (both of which I'd give 5 stars). She never cuts loose, which is a shame, because when she does, her voice has the gale-force power of Grace Slick in her prime, only without the rawness-- a remarkable thing to behold. Still, I'd recommend this album, because it is light-years beyond most of the stuff that passes for pop music these days.

I am very suprised that Claire Voyant isn't more well known in the alternative community. A mixture of Coctaeu Twins, Siouxsie and 10,000 Maniacs.... Claire Voyant has a fantastic sound and style all it's own. Their new album "Love Is Blind" is a bit more upbeat than their self titled album and "Time & The Maiden". Songs like "Pieces" and "Silence" are strong and energetic tracks. Other songs like "24 Hours" let Victoria Lloyd (vocalist) show a softer and more subtle side. Like most Claire Voyant material, "Love Is Blind" is a journey that you have to take by listening to the entire album with a great stereo system. It's atmospheric and haunting. I highly recommend this album is you like lush scores, powerful female vocals, and elegant guitar work.

It's a crime that this band isn't more popular. Having gotten that off my chest...
It's hard to categorize this music. I suppose it would be dumped into the goth category, by the virtue of the sadness and occasinally darkness that permeates their songs, but that would be doing the band a disservice. Claire Voyant stands alone. The music and words are deceptively simple, but touched by the honey colored vocals of the lead singer, they become beautiful.
The prize on this record (there are so many, though!) is Twenty Four Years, the sheer longing of which is magnified by the constant refrain of time. Silence, He Is Here, Pieces are all extraordinary songs and taken together, this is the CD that would be difficult to pry out of your CD player.
If you love this, do get Time and the Maiden, which is perhaps even darker. I can't find the first Claire Voyant self-titled outing in print, and I wish they'd rerelease it. Such gorgeous music should be pumping out of all radios simultaneously, I just wish...

Lloyd's lyrics are always compelling, and her voice adds a haunting feel to it... though I do find this album to be missing something that the previous ones had. My favorite of their works was "Time Again", due to it's slightly more electronic vibe, which I think adds an even greater roar to their sound. All in all this album was very satisfying, I'd recommend it for sure... very relaxing.

I think this is a great album. It is very simple and beautiful all the way through, without much change, but all the same keeps you entertained. Could have been spectacular if she had pushed herself for just a little exta feeling/volume a few times.