Three albums, 27 May 2022

Again three albums that were in fear of slipping away in that deluge of albums coming my way. To think I'm not even coming around to huge bands like The Smile, The Black Keys, Rammstein. There simply are not enough hours in a day. Three female singers today, who made a beautiful or extremely intriguing album.

We've Going About This All Wrong. Sharon van Etten

Eight years ago, in my previous review of a Sharon van Etten album, I wrote that I liked 'Are We There' but had a hard time connecting to it emotionally. This led to a reader's angry response. So be it. I have no trouble attaching myself to We've Going About This All Wrong. If anything, it is a serious album. Sharon van Etten has a few messages to share. About herself, her well-being, being a mother, in short: her life. We've Going About This All Wrong may have been made during the pandemic, this has not kept the singer-songwriter from creating a few huge songs, with emotions flying. She is definitely singing to me this time and to herself as well. I realise that this was the missing element, for me, on 'Are We There'. This album can be put on a line with Martha Wainwright's latest album, 'Love Will Be Reborn'. Exactly for that reason, the sharing, the making the listener part of the bigger picture. With her deeper vocal range, Sharon van Etten gives her music a mysterious element, while at the same time keeping her music very down to earth. With spacious synths and huge drums she expands the songs no little, adding respectively to both descriptions. Not that everything is roses and sunshine. 'Anything' shows the dark sides of her life: "I didn't feel anything", accompanied by music creating a dark, musical cloud over her voice. At the same time it is so easy to identify with the beauty in the song. It seems like she has put everything she has into it. Obviously she has a lot to share with her listeners. This is just one example of the songs on We've Going About This All Wrong. Sharon van Etten has set a new standard for herself to live up to. She has done something right, contradicting the album's title entirely.

Radiate Like This. Warpaint

Warpaint has made one of the most beautiful singles of the previous decade. 'Love Is To Die' is in close competition with The LVE's (Lightning Vishwa Experience at the time) 'Love When You Don't Want It'. After six years the four piece releases a new album. In sound it is a modern album. Of course, there's no denying there. In atmosphere, I can hear the great female singers of the 1950s sing the songs on Radiate Like This. Think Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, the kind of music my mother brought with her when she moved from Vancouver to Rotterdam. The songs that make up my very earliest musical impressions. From before I can actually remember. Drop the semi-classical orchestra and arrangements behind the singers and enter Warpaint.

On Radiate Like This Warpaint is dreaming even harder than ever before. The Covid lockdown has made the band withdraw even deeper into itself. On the side it shows how good Dutch band Dakota was on its only album 'Here's The 101 On How To Disappear'. Both bands create a mix of being very present, while almost drifting away on the basis of the fleetingness of their music. Stella Mozgawa's drums may be very present at times, everything around her is almost morphing into thin air or slowly dripping away. If music is able to hover, Warpaint is showing how its done, while creating the ballads of the 2020s.

Emily Kokal's voice floats as it were over the music. Her vocal melodies are, with that one notable exception, better than ever before, in my opinion. Radiate Like This because of it is a strong and beautiful album. An album to fully submerge in. Surrender, let it take you over for a while and the music is everywhere, becoming one with your being. The drums, the bass, guitars, synths and voices take on a life of their own. Radiate like this indeed.

And Those Who Were Seen Dancing. Tess Parks

Is it possible to record and sing an album from beyond the grave? No, I'm certain it's impossible. Listening to And Those Who Were Seen Dancing made me doubt myself though. Tess Parks may be a young woman, her voice and the presentation of her new songs sound as if they have been a part of the ashes to ashes and dust to dust process for quite some time, only to decide to record that record afterwards.

On the one hand this album has the effect on me Joy Division had, a band I still can't listen to for more that a few songs at a time. On the other hand, I'm totally intrigued by And Those Who Were Seen Dancing. There's no denying Tess Parks has done everything in her power to make this album as good as possible. Underneath that deathlike exterior lies a host of beauty. The arrangements of the songs are full of nice details, warm keyboards, surprising beats, inventive solo lines and vocal harmonies. Not everything is what it seems on And Those Who Were Seen Dancing.

Tess Parks releases her first solo album since her debut from 2013, 'Blood Hot'. She worked on these song since well before the pandemic and kept working on them with friends and family for two years. The result we hear today may not be the same had there not been a pandemic. There's no way of finding out the differences, at least in the short run. There's always the 10-40th anniversary edition option, although I doubt to make it until the latter.

And Those Who Were Seen Dancing connects with me on a few levels. This has to do with the voices of Tess Parks, with obvious The Velvet Underground influences and with the arranging skills brought to the album. Tess Parks connects over a half century of musical influences effortlessly to come up with a fully modern record. Quite a feat.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order the albums here:

https://sharonvanetten.bandcamp.com/

https://warpaint.bandcamp.com/album/radiate-like-this

https://tessparks.bandcamp.com/album/and-those-who-were-seen-dancing