Customer Reviews

The Magdalene Laundries

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

 

 

Just as with skinning a cat, there are many ways to record a memorable album.

You can produce a set of songs awash with lush harmonies, enough hooks to net a small school of fish and melodies that will revive the philosophy of whistle while you work single-handedly.

Or you can do as Diana Darby has done on The Magdalene Laundries and create magic from what appear to be the barest of ingredients.

If you wrote a list of what Diana Darby had actually used to make The Magdalene Laundries, it would be a very short list, guitar and voice are pretty much it. But what you can not write down is what you can't see, can't touch but you can most certainly hear and that's the sound of her soul. The opening track Skin is here and gone in the blink of eye, however in half a dozen lines and with a voice that is rough and raw, Diana Darby says more than most would achieve with an orchestra and a whole evening at their disposal.

As the Magdalene Laundries unfolds you realize that she is not singing or playing quietly simply for effect but becasue to do either any louder would simply crush the spirit of the songs underfoot.

Where at first, you find you're leaning forward to hear better, eventually you find you're doing it as reflex action as you become totally absorbed in each song's beauty.

This is not an album that is readily or easily understood, each track is its own labyrinthine poem, accompanied by the lightest touch of music. Words and music initially appear to be completely unrelated, however they soon wrap around each other, forming an unbreakable bond.

As Kierkegaard for one, arouses your interest and then your passion, there's no turning back on The Magdalene Laundries. It may be delicate but Diana Darby's music is possessed of a vice-like grip, there is an overwhelming need to find out what Diana Darby has come up with next.

Listening to The Magdalene Laundries is like being caught up in a surreal dream, as the experience moves on the sense of wonder increases. And, like a dream, you're never quite sure if anything is real or not but eventually the spell Diana Darby casts means it doesn't really matter.