The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features

A muse amused

Kristin Hersh discovers the bright side of life
By BRETT MILANO  |  February 27, 2007

070223_hersh_amin1
EYE ON YOU: Hersh has mastered the kind of torch song that celebrates the messy and obsessive sides of a grown-up relationship.

There are a few good reasons to admire Kristin Hersh’s latest solo album, Learn To Sing like a Star (Yep Roc). For one thing, it’s as alluringly tuneful a disc as she’s ever made, without skimping on the depth and dark corners that her fans have come to love. For another, it comes close to bringing together the acoustic sound of her solo albums with the more produced approach of Throwing Muses. But most of all, it manages to use both the words “guttural” and “subsequent” in its lyrics. In the annals of pop songwriting, that may be a first.

“Did I really do that?” she asks over tea at Newbury Street’s Trident Café, her eyes going up in surprise. “I should probably go back and learn the lyrics.” It’s clear her approach to songwriting and recording hasn’t gotten any less intuitive over the years. Around the time she started Throwing Muses as a teenager in Newport with half-sister Tanya Donelly, she experienced the songs as auditory hallucinations that came blasting fully written in her ears. She’s made peace with the intrusions over the years, figuring that the songs are more powerful than she is. But she still doesn’t give herself too much credit for where a song or an album will choose to go.

So it is with the new disc. The title comes from a spam e-mail that she kept receiving during the sessions. But it does raise the question of whether this long-time cult heroine is capable of doing such a thing. She isn’t even that comfortable about the relatively commercial sound of the disc she’s just made. “I was surprised at the largeness of it. It got a little too perfect for me, and I’m not sure if the people who like what I do will like it. I like things to be fluid, fragile, fucked up. This was light and clean, and played to a click track — I’m still not sure if it’s complex enough to last. I wouldn’t have chosen this production vocabulary to tell these stories, but the songs make their own decisions.”

Not to worry, however: though the new album is different, it isn’t that different. The melodies may be dressed up with layers of guitar and keyboard overdubs, but they’re still her melodies — the kind that dance around in mid air and don’t land where you’d expect. The opening “In Shock” — a rocker with cello, and the most Muses-like track here — brings out the bluesy drawl that’s been in her voice for a number of years, a reminder that she’s been messing with the blues about as long as PJ Harvey has. Likewise, the overall mood of the album — spooky, mysterious, and inviting — is the ambiance that’s lately made Joanna Newsom a hot property. Hersh may never have learned to sing like a star, but a number of stars have learned to sing like her.

1  |  2  |   next >
Related: Counting backwards, Fallout joys, Oddballs and noisemakers, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , Entertainment, Music, New Music Releases,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 05/14 ]   The Feelies  @ Middle East Downstairs
[ 05/14 ]   Kathy Griffin  @ Wilbur Theatre
[ 05/14 ]   Massachusetts Bad Poetry Contest  @ The Gathering
ARTICLES BY BRETT MILANO
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   WALTER SICKERT LEADS A BAND OF MUSICAL MISFITS  |  February 05, 2011
    When Walter Sickert and his Army of Broken Toys played an official First Night show at the Hynes Auditorium on New Year's Eve, they ran overtime and the soundman pulled the plug — which isn't quite the smartest way of shutting down an acoustic band.
  •   GUIDED BY VOICES RETURN WITH SELF-INFLICTED NOSTALGIA  |  November 07, 2010
    When Guided by Voices announced their reunion tour this year, it marked a milestone of sorts for the Dayton band. This is arguably the first conventional career move they've ever made.
  •   DANDO AND HATFIELD REKINDLE A MUSICAL COURTSHIP  |  November 01, 2010
    Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield were never a serious couple, and they never played music together for very long.
  •   REVIEW: ROCK OF AGES  |  October 12, 2010
    At the start of the hair-metal musical Rock of Ages (at the Colonial Theatre through October 17), narrator Lonny (Patrick Lewallen) promises a night of sexy decadence and general kick-assery.
  •   DREAM SYNDICATE'S STEVE WYNN REVIVES A CLASSIC  |  October 12, 2010
    At the end of 1983, I was writing for Boston Rock magazine, and in one issue, we predicted the defining releases of the year to come.

 See all articles by: BRETT MILANO

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group