Written
by Ed Price, posted by blog admin
Website: https://www.sarahdonner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahdonner/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahdonner?lang=en
MUSIC VIDEO: (PHOENIX)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13Jwyb-AnA
Website: https://www.sarahdonner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahdonner/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahdonner?lang=en
MUSIC VIDEO: (PHOENIX)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13Jwyb-AnA
Black
Hole Heart, the latest release from New Jersey based singer/songwriter Sarah
Donner, carries on in the tradition she’s established since first emerging on
the scene. Light-footed, immensely musical folk pop is married to exceptionally
crafted and intelligent lyrical content that delves deep into the personal
without ever risking obscurity. The album’s dozen songs make use of a
relatively limited array of instruments, but this shouldn’t alarm potential
listeners. There’s an immense amount of color and melody sparking these songs
to life and they never fail to both engage listener’s intellects and move their
emotions. Her first class writing talents come through on each of the album’s
songs and it’s quickly apparent she’s chosen an excellent supporting cast to
help these tunes come to life.
“Phoenix”
opens the album quite nicely. Its ambling acoustic grace has a lot of audible
confidence as well. There’s ample delicacy in the arrangement, particularly how
the vocals and guitar work weave around each other, but the steady acoustic
strum has some strength as well in its inexorable march towards song’s end. The
delicacy is even more pronounced on the album’s title track, but it also gains
much from the well-conceived lyric poetry that fills the track. Donner exploits
the full potential of the black hole metaphor and dramatizes it well with an
evocative singing performance. “Florida” is an equally poignant acoustic based track
with a direct and lilting memory guaranteed to get under listener’s skin from
the first. Donner has a genuine knack for emotional narratives – not linear,
A-Z storytelling, but a skill for getting inside the emotional truth of each
song with a surprisingly minimal amount of effort. The same fine writing
defining much of the release continues to hold sway on the song “Athena” and
her sprightly vocal phrasing imbues the lyric with a lot of dramatic life. The
mandolin in the song is a particularly effective musical touch and unwinds with
just the right amount of artfulness.
There’s
some unexpectedly entertaining self-deprecating humor in the song “The Longest
Road”, an otherwise heavily reflective track about life’s journey and the
mistaken turns we can make moving through the years. She changes musical gears
slightly with the song “All the Things”, but the same honest wisdom and keen
eye for significant details distinguishes this performance. The musical
qualities manifest themselves a little different with a clipped, straight ahead
acoustic guitar figure that gives her vocal an added urgency. Melody is the
dominant musical force on the song “Sinking Ship” and it helps frame another
fine Donner vocal in the best possible way – the interplay between these two
elements is on point and easily elicits an emotional response from the
listener. There’s a echo-laden, elegiac tone to the album’s conclusion “Sol 549”
that brings Black Hole Heart to a finish like a leaf slowly wafting towards the
ground. The distance surrounding Donner’s voice is quite evocative, but never
so far removed from the mix that the instrumental tracks gain sonic
superiority. Black Hole Heart has a well honed sense for the musical and a wide
emotional breadth that encompasses many facets of human experience. Sarah
Donner has greater achievements ahead of her, but there’s little question that
Black Hole Heart ranks high among her most significant musical projects.
Grade:
A
No comments:
Post a Comment