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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

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Album Review

Widowspeak
Widowspeak Captured Tracks

Article written by Peter W - Nov 2, 2011

Widowspeak

This fabulous 3 piece may be based in New York but their sound owes more to dustier, lonelier landscapes with the widow in question surely having more than just a few intimate encounters with the legendary Link Wray.

The album is filled with catchy, concise odes to lost love(s) which never descend into dull self-pity, thanks in part to the rock n roll twang but due also to the vocals of Molly Hamilton – a croon that’s simultaneously melancholy and seductive - the Hope Sandoval comparisons are unavoidable.

From the bittersweet opener ‘Puritan’ to the beautifully gentle ‘Hard Times’ six tracks later, this album sparkles with confident song-writing and pitch perfect track placement; ‘Harsh Realm’ builds the tension nicely with a slow, moody strum before the guitars finally let rip during ‘Nightcrawlers’, at once overwhelming Hamilton’s hitherto dominating vocals and culminating in a Morricone-like rush. Elsewhere in this winning streak are the gothic and ever-so-slightly sinister ‘In the Pines’ and the hook-laden ‘Gun Shy’, the latter possessing the catchiest chorus on the record (unsurprisingly, it’s the first single).

Only ‘Fir Coat’ disrupts the flow somewhat as the band, for once, lack bite and opt for jangly-pop insipidity. Thankfully this proves to be a short-lived blip and the closing pair, ‘Half Awake’ and the trippy ‘Ghost Boy’, ensure an appropriately fine finish to a gem of a debut album.

Links:
http://widowspeak.bandcamp.com/
http://capturedtracks.com/

Widowspeak: Widowspeak