Darkness has been a friend to me

OK, I was originally going to do a review on the new Coldplay album. But I think everyone who reads this blog has it already, or has listened to it. I might still do one just to give people who have the album an idea of how I listen to stuff. But for now, we shall delve into a new artist I discovered last year.

And holy crap, its been a while since I've done one of these.

Liz Tormes - Limelight

I literally stumbled on this artist by accident. After some quick clips I decided to take a chance and grab it on iTunes. A couple of minutes into the album I had stop and start over, this was truely something different, and I wanted to reset my mind and sink into it.

This isn't a flashy, over produced record. In some ways, arrangements are quite simple, yet the subtleties in the music are profound. The whole album has an organic feel to it, making it feel like a casual live performance in your living room. There is a lot of excitement in the album, but it's driven by emotion not by meter. Very possible to do, but very difficult to do for a whole album. I'm constantly amazed that the songs are mostly to a moderate beat, yet the intensity can be so high.

Liz has a fantastic voice, and the lyrics are well polished. Liz can lend emotion to the music without having her vocals overpower the song. Sometimes her voice is sweet, sometimes very smokey, her range is fantastic. I also love the fact there are hardly any self-backing vocals on here. I feel those are used way too much (except for Charlotte Martin who is the queen of knowing how to use them effectivly), when they are used, they're very focused and perfectly executed. From time to time a male backing vocal will appear on Maybe You Won't, Black Luck, and Sorry. I call this out due to the perfection on how this vocal is weaved into the songs. You'll be surprised on how subtly it's used and yet gives a huge impact to the song.

I won't go song by song on this album for three reasons
1) I'm trying something different
2) I think that was boring people
3) Frankly, this is an album that should be bought as a whole.

However, I will point out some highlights

Black Luck is the strongest piece on here, the longest piece, yet it will seem to pass too quickly. The most organic piece on the album, it will sometimes seem to have no structure, yet it's the piece with the greatest punch, and will stick with you long after it's over. Everything on this song is crafted perfectly, and the male vocals I talked about above are used to perfection here. If you buy one song this year, this is it. I could not rate a song higher.

The other very strong songs on the album if you're a cherry picker is Better Days (with the best lyric on the album, "It's not that I don't want to be your girl, I just don't want to be"), Limelight, Without Truth, Sorry and Fade Away.

The other songs aren't as strong, but they should not be considered weak. To quote Coupling "One of them has to be better". When listened to as an album, every song gets a boost by the atmosphere created by the surrounding pieces.

If there is a weak spot on here, it's the song Maybe You Won't, which doesn't seem to deliver like the other songs, and never really gets going.

If you're more popish, then Don't Love Back and Without Truth will probably be your favorite tracks. This album pretty much has something to offer for everyone.

One final note about this incredibly positive review. I have an iTunes playlist "My Mood" where I take songs in and out of as my mood strikes me. This album got added there a week after I bought it last November. It has not ever left that playlist.

It is the only album I own to claim that.