Carissa's Wierd - Songs About Leaving (2002)
I do admit that the first time I listened to this album about a year ago or so it didn’t really grab my attention, or indeed with the first few listens. But I just felt the urge to keep listening to it and eventually it clicked with me and it revealed itself to be a very sad and bleak yet warm album. There is a great sense of sadness here that is really heartbreaking to listen to; this is an album that will probably put you in a depressed mood for the rest of the day. This mood is the result of a number of factors: bleak and painful lyrics, soft, quiet yet sometimes emotionally intense vocals, mournful strings, sad and beautiful pianos, and of course some wonderfully picked guitar playing. All these seem to interweave with each other to create one sad yet beautiful force that flows throughout the whole course of the album. When this album really comes alive however is when joint-vocalist Jenn Ghetto’s voice comes to the fore on ‘So You Wanna Be a Superhero’ and ‘Sofisticated F
uck Princess Please Leave Me Alone’. Her voice sounds rich with raw emotion and uncertainty and sounds like she is teetering on the edge of breaking down, while her lyrics are bleak and very uncomfortable to listen to. Certainly not a party album, but this album does sound great in the autumn. Falling leaves, days getting darker and colder, and the oncoming approach of winter seem to go very well with the music on this album.
Songs About Leaving was a more developed and better realised effort than its predecessor You Should Be At Home Here. The vocals and lyrics have more presence and more purpose, especially when Jenn Ghetto’s vocals come to the fore. Overall a highly consistent and slow-burning album that sounds better with each listen.
Recommended Songs: ‘So You Wanna Be a Superhero’, ‘Ignorant Piece Of Sh
it’, ‘Sofisticated F
uck Princess Please Leave Me Alone’
The Church - Starfish (1988)
Australian band The Church originally started out as a post-punk outfit in 1980 but by the time of their successful Starfish album had grown into a more mature and ambitious outfit. A lot of you will probably recognise the song ‘Under The Milky Way’, due to its appearance on the Donnie Darko soundtrack and its distinctive e-bow guitar solo sounding like bagpipes. It may be their most popular song but it really does show what this band is capable of, it manages to sound both memorable and accessible yet have an experimental bent to it and this is the case with a lot of songs on the album. Have a listen to the excellent guitar playing on ‘North, South, East and West’ and admire its effortless combination with an unforgettable chorus. The band show they can play but never once overdo it or allow themselves to indulge on this album, always letting the songs come to the fore. Lead vocalist/bassist Steve Kilbey voice always sounds warm and inviting and his bittersweet melodies breathe plenty of life into every song. He could also be very inventive with his lyrics such as on the fabulous closing song ‘Hotel Womb’, its strange and abstract lyrics apparently being about having a nightmare about cannibalism despite the warm and bittersweet melodies of the song.
Even the weaker songs on the album stick with you and have their own distinct character but when this album gets good it takes you somewhere magical. After this album the band would start experimenting more but still record some great albums, such as 1992’s brilliant Priest = Aura. However it is on Starfish that the band sound on top of their game and is the album I turn to every time.
Recommended Songs: ‘Under The Milky Way’, ‘North, South, East and West’, ‘Hotel Womb’