Ten emotive tracks of timeless quality.
The Sweet Hereafter have been around for close on a quarter century. On this new album from the band, the tracks within centre around Jesse Sykes’ transcendent voice, tracks filled with themes of magical thinking, emotional dislocation, death and transformation, but with Phil Wandscher’s playing bringing additional musical alchemy. Sykes said that this album is “our attempt at creating elegant folk and sometimes ragged, cosmic heart renderings, full of eulogies and laments.”
Opener ‘Feather Treasure’ opens gently, then Wandscher’s guitar gets gritty, disturbing the tranquil feel. ‘Gentle Chaperone’ is one of several beautiful songs, another ethereal beginning, the music pulsating towards an end, with string arrangement, layers woven in with vocal harmonies, electric guitar, and keyboard. A lot of fine musicians play on this album. Sykes’ voice accompanies it all perfectly. As she says, “Listen in the dark”. ‘Winter’s Empty Pages’, ‘Oh, My Sitter’, ‘Forever, I’ve Been Born’ and ‘A New Medium’ all deserve a listen before the lights come back on.
‘Dewayne’ and ‘I Still Hear Lorelei’ are on more familiar ground. There’s a country feel but they are still musically layered, and both with some intriguing lyrics, the term chicken hawks… and is Sykes referring to Lorelei from the German legend? ‘Dead End Pools’ is a slightly upbeat love song. Sykes says in her blog that she wrote the song with the knowledge that a relationship can be strained, but “The divine Spark, the love, the friendship, always overcame the darkness and difficulties of those days and continues to nourish us”. Is ‘My Sweet Hereafter’ Phil Wandscher’s response?
The ten tracks were mostly recorded by Johnny Sangster at Crackle & Pop in Seattle and subtly mixed by Rob Davidson along with Sykes and Wandsher. There’s also some lovely guest vocals and harmonies from Marissa Nadler. This is not a melancholic listen – Sykes is right, “there is a lot of hope embedded in the songs”. Elegant folk indeed.
