4.0 out of 5 stars
Sultry, melancholic & evocative, February 22, 2008
This review is from: Quiet Music for Quiet People (Audio CD)
Well, I purchased this album on the basis of the only current Amazon review of Inga Liljestrom's other album "Elk" & the fact that I already had one track off that album (the adorable "All of This") from a sample CD. Liljestrom's voice is truly a joy to behold - a sultry hybrid of many great chanteuses (eg. Julia Fordham, Bjork?) or maybe a younger Marianne Faithful without the throaty rasp. In fact rarely, if ever, have I had the experience of "falling in love with" a voice, as I have done with Inga's. Anyway, largely because of this fact alone, my expectations for this album were seriously high.....
In that context this album is at once highly satisfying & yet ever so slightly disappointing. The inner sleeve tells us "this project is completely improvised [&] some songs have cracks you are most welcome to fall in to". Well, I don't know about "cracks" but the music here almost falls into some kind of atmospheric film or other backing music except that Liljestrom's voice is so totally compelling, seemingly fragile yet totally secure, earthy & evocative. Clearly, the underlying theme is one of love's labours endured & the music is indeed quiet, sombre & could be largely devoid of interest in its own right were it not for, yea you guessed it, THAT voice. The slight problem, however, is that neither the music nor Liljestrom ever really break out from what I can only describe as elongated melancholia (special mention to Heather Straff on cello here). Indeed, this isn't the sort of album that bears "hits" (as "All of This" was from "Elk") but rather creates & envelops you in a total mood (almost like "A day in the life...."). So much so that when I finally arrived at the last track "Lumen" I didn't know whether to be thrilled or worried about it's stated running time of 11min 23!!
My considered advice to people is either to listen to a track or two of this ('cause there ain't much variation in any of the others!) or maybe head towards "Elk" first. This said, if you really like the voice you'll probably happily listen to either album.
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