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CD ReviewNeedle – “Songs Your Mother Never Sang You”By Marcus Pan
The two prime members of Needle are multi-instrumentalists, combined with soft female vocals by Julie Cornett. She also handles keys, drums, xylophone and guitar while Steven Beck’s guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and xylophone are utilized as well. The opening It’s No Secret is soft and strummy, almost fuzzy, with angelic lyrics by Julie and slow movements. The trend continues, getting a bit deeper and brooding with On the Run though Julie’s voice attempts to keep it from spiraling into a depressive pit of angst and melancholy. The loping mope of Good Intentions threatens to darken your mood, but somehow Julie’s vocals again trace a bit of light heartedness into even the mopiest of rhythms. Start gets extremely poetic in its recitation and brightens the mood a bit. I really like the childlike overtones of Black Holes, somewhat reminiscent of Bel Canto’s Magic Box[1], though certainly softer in tone. The Best is Yet to Come has a feeling of being lost adrift somewhere. I don’t mind Songs Your Mother Never Sang You so much, but I really have to be in the mood for the lo-fi chill out thing. It’s not my everyday fare, but a nice chill down atmosphere can be created with Needle. As I finish up this review I am in a bit of an upbeat sort of mood, so getting into Songs Your Mother Never Sang You is a bit tough, but the music is a soothing concoction of poetics, soft guitars and percussion done in a sit-in folky lo-fi style that fans of Mazzy Star, Chocolate Grinder[2], etc. would certainly dig. Contact Information: [1] I wrote about this release in Legends #90. Click to Buy! |
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Needle’s a nice slow
moving shoegazery collection, poetic in its make-up and very soft and chillful.
It comes across as a downbeat coffee house sound, dubbed “Lo-fi apartment
rock” combined with “minimalist art rock.” It doesn’t stray
too far into the artsy-fartsy vagueness and pretention I’ve seen at times,
and instead remains more palatable and comfortable.
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