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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Behind the Mask, August 28, 2003
Mary Timony is amazing. For those that don't know her, she has fronted a number of bands in the past ten years. Helium and Autoclave being the most notable. I had not heard of her, though, until a friend gave me her first solo album, Mountains. It was love at first listen. And obsession at second listen. I was expecting her new album, The Golden Dove, to be a disappointment. I saw no way that she could top the Mountains album and I didn't get my hopes up. But she did. Or rather, she didn't. She managed to make an equally wonderful album that shares similar themes and sounds with Mountains, yet she added new elements to keep from being one of those artists that tries to repeat themselves over and over. Her lyrics are still fairytales of witchcraft and sorrow, but now there are more satirical jabs at life and relationships thrown in. The metaphors are more clear. The vocals and rhythm are more pronounced. Mountains had an echo to it, which fit with the medieval tone to the album. The Golden Dove hits a more Helium-like vibe while still maintaining Mary's haunting, folkfaerie touch. Like Mountains, the new album does have certain redundant melodies. But they fit the melancholy, yet hopeful lyrics. Mountains was the witch who needed no one. The Golden Dove seems to realize she might want someone, perhaps she had and lost someone, but she still retains that self-reliance. Magic, isolation, and companionship are the themes most prominant, along with a somewhat cynical view of the world that is sprinkled throughout the album. All accompanied with a lot of hand clapping.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Words Escape Me, March 21, 2003
I am enchanted by Mary Timony. I find her intoxicatingly talented. And, unlike the litany of artists my freinds always recite that I'm "supposed" to be into (PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Bjork) Mary doesn't seem at all daunting or distanced, like an unapproachable superstar. She has a wonderful big-sister quality, the kind of person you'd love when she was around and miss when she wasn't. Her casual approach may be her biggest asset. Certainly on her stunning second solo effort "The Golden Dove", this is in ample evidence. On insinuating tracks like "14 Horses" and "The Owl's Escape", she weaves a subtly devestating tapestry of minor-chord meloncholy that takes a few listens to fully register (but, isn't that the case with all good music?). Musical elements that have become her trademark since her Helium days are present here as well: "Musik and Charming Melody" layers strings and complex, inter-locking guitar parts for a beguiling celebration of the mythically uplifting power of music, and "Look A Ghost In The Eye" begins with an oddly heroic arpeggio, then hooks you with an indellable chorus. There's even some of the dirgy, Sonic Youth-ish guitar she used to great effect on "The Dirt Of Luck", Helium's stellar debut. Those of you who enjoy fantastical musical explorations, but are a bit put off by the over-the-top grandiosity of her superstar peers, will find a bracing breath of fresh air with Mary Timony and this great record.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dungeon Master-chic, November 27, 2002
Helium was a great indie-rock band, as distinctive in retrospect as they seemed in the '90s - often juxtaposing a driving beat with oddly lazy, string-bending chords and sleepy vocals by Mary Timony. As a solo artist, Mary has taken the quality of some of the most arresting Helium songs, the ones that were sparse in instrumentation and accompanied by wispy fragile vocals that would break beautifully over the lyrics, and she's expanded it to something far eerier. And far odder.The music is as tough to describe as it is polarizing to its listeners' opinions. The sound is somewhere between an estrogen-heavy Sonic Youth playing at a mideval shindig, and the musical realization of a teenaged girl's book of poetry on the exact cusp of her transformation from unicorn-loving pixie to death-obsessed goth maiden. This album could be the soundtrack to the world's first cool Dungeons and Dragons game, or the background music to all your pent-up high school pubescent angst. Will you like it? Who knows? I can only say two things for certain. First, this music is undeniably feminine - mysterious, lovely, spooky and unconvenional. And second, there is absolutely nothing out there that sounds anything like it. It is a language all its own - genre defying, influence defying, history defying. And that is undeniably good. Whether it speaks to you personally or not.
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by Mary Timony 
