Laura
Carbone’s latest, EMPTY SEA, is good but damn
I just wish it was a little better….
She
has many strengths and a great overall sound, conjuring up a heady mélange of
reverb-laden artists from the past 25 years or so – the Spartan menace of Mazzy
Star, the more feedback-laden ennui of Opal, the straight-up rock of L.A.
Witch, and so on and so on. She employs
vocal tricks I remember fondly from the Breeders and utilizes a cinematic sound
that, at times, brings “Wicked Game” to mind.
Her voice fits into it all perfectly, and her German-accented English
gives the lyrics and phrasings awesome new twists.
But…..
Even
though the songs are solid and the playing passionate, nothing really jumps out
and grabs you by the throat (this is after 5 or 6 listens). The songs float by in an interesting-enough
haze, but the hooks aren’t particularly hooky nor the choruses overly
catchy. It’s good mood music, to be
sure, but the moods are fleeting. You
sway to the songs while they’re playing, but you won’t be humming them for the
rest of the day. It’s a solid album in
the darker dreampop vein (and I guarantee it’s better than anything the
trendsetters and hitmakers are churning out this month), but ultimately it’s
just a little disappointing.
