Colleen:
The Weighing of the Heart:
Second Language:
Released: May 13th 2013
7/10
Now here's a pretty album - a French singer living in Spain, armed with plucked viola and guitar, and blessed with a wild-eyed global view of the world.
On her first full-length studio-album in a decade, Colleen (aka Cecile Schott) dips her hands into the musical jars marked 'Asian', 'Latin' and 'African' and throws in seasonings from Europe and the American mid-West. What comes out is a platter blessed with colour, charisma and charm that evokes comparisons with Joanna Newsom, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Wailin' Jennys, Beth Orton and inevitably, given the sparse string-work here, Arthur Russell.
From the wistful yet heady intro "Push The Boat Onto The Sand", past the intricate fret-work of Geometria del Universo and the musical-box gamelan-influenced Humming Fields, through Catalonian-cum-Talk Talk love-child Going Forth By Day and the final busy closing pair, Breaking Up The Earth and The Weighing of the Heart, Colleen's approach isn't folk, isn't classical and certainly isn't radio-friendly pop, but is an emulsifying collusion of soft breathy vocal phrases and extended almost self-indulgent musical passages that in less capable hands would sound like a disaster, a cacophony of opposites.
Here though, those opposites really do attract. Despite a few laborious bits and pieces on here - for example, Break Away is a repetitive interlude that detracts away from the flow of the album rather than binds it together - The Weighing of the Heart isn't heavy-going in the slightest. Instead, the lightest of touch has resulted in near-perfection. An unexpected treat. The lovely sleeve by Iker Spozio compliments the music perfectly.
For information about live concerts by Colleen head to Allgigs here
The Weighing of the Heart:
Second Language:
Released: May 13th 2013
7/10
On her first full-length studio-album in a decade, Colleen (aka Cecile Schott) dips her hands into the musical jars marked 'Asian', 'Latin' and 'African' and throws in seasonings from Europe and the American mid-West. What comes out is a platter blessed with colour, charisma and charm that evokes comparisons with Joanna Newsom, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Wailin' Jennys, Beth Orton and inevitably, given the sparse string-work here, Arthur Russell.
From the wistful yet heady intro "Push The Boat Onto The Sand", past the intricate fret-work of Geometria del Universo and the musical-box gamelan-influenced Humming Fields, through Catalonian-cum-Talk Talk love-child Going Forth By Day and the final busy closing pair, Breaking Up The Earth and The Weighing of the Heart, Colleen's approach isn't folk, isn't classical and certainly isn't radio-friendly pop, but is an emulsifying collusion of soft breathy vocal phrases and extended almost self-indulgent musical passages that in less capable hands would sound like a disaster, a cacophony of opposites.
Here though, those opposites really do attract. Despite a few laborious bits and pieces on here - for example, Break Away is a repetitive interlude that detracts away from the flow of the album rather than binds it together - The Weighing of the Heart isn't heavy-going in the slightest. Instead, the lightest of touch has resulted in near-perfection. An unexpected treat. The lovely sleeve by Iker Spozio compliments the music perfectly.
For information about live concerts by Colleen head to Allgigs here