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CD ReviewMy Scarlet Life - "InfraRed"By Dan Century
Like a great movie, MSL brings you into their world of powerful emotions and images. Listening to a MSL song can be quite an emotional and immersive experience, not for the immature or jaded. People with true passion for life and love will greatly appreciate this album. Enjoyable through headphones as well as stereo speakers, InfraRed is one album you will enjoy sharing with others. Very soothing, relaxing music without being boring or repetitive. InfraRed is an intensely rhythmic album - each song a unique tapestry of percussion, warm electronics, mysterious, clever samples and solid bass lines. Sometimes exotic, sometimes familiar, always passionate. InfraRed features some of the most solid, inventive production you're likely to hear - equaling the best efforts of William Orbit, Daniel Lanois and Butch Vig. Of course no MSL review would be complete without mentioning the vocalists, Christy Cameron Smith and Julie Axis. Both are amazing singers, each with their own unique style and tone. Their lyrics are as mysterious, complex and dreamlike, as they are honest, romantic and universal. These waters run deep. Thoughts about the songs… Don't Make Me - A powerful synth riff breaks before an exotic mix of rhythms and sexy guitar leads. Julie's delicate vocals are as sensual as they are mysterious. Metaphors of wounded animals, wounded by love? That's the worst kind of pain, and the animal might just bite back. Promise - Christy's gentle, warm voice glides through a mesh of subtle rhythm and vocal harmonies. Poetic mourning over a relationship that wasn't meant to be. Rainy Sundays - Sharp guitars and rippling waves of synthetic tones frame Christie's honest words. Complex but comforting. "I don't want to spend my Rainy Sundays wishin' on the way that things might have been." Garden of Love - Slow, sexy bass and guitar lines flood from speakers like a tide, giving way to a solid beat and electronic rhythms. A sea of echo floats Julie's gorgeously warm vocals, which seem to reach from speakers like an embrace, an acceptance of love. Angel's Whisper - The beat and bass lumbers along lost but determined, like an electronic Tom Waits song. Searching for hope and purpose in a world of question and futility. Even a whisper will fill the void. Pure Denial - Infrared is worth buying for this song alone. How many people do you know that live in denial? Let this song say what you're afraid to. Fluttering synth tones melt into rich, fat bass lines, aquatic echoes and Julie's delicious and frank vocals. And what a killer chorus! Silent Screams - Spooky synths create a mysterious mood for nightmare lyrics. Christie's being smothered and silenced, can you hear her silent screams? No one should be silenced, especially not someone with a voice and spirit so divine. Love's Out of Fashion - A bouncy bass, twisted samples dancing around Julie's playful vox. Love's gone out of fashion - we hope everyone doesn't feel that way, and I think that's Julie's point. Don't Look Back - Solid bass, echoing guitar riffs, layered rhythms. The most danceable of the tracks on the album. Like a voice of assurance in a nightmare, a positive spirit within your worst dreams. So Frail - Begins with a long sample of someone getting out of a car, walking up stairs, opening a door and entering a room where music is playing. The sample smoothly fades into song. A string driven and sorrowful goodbye song. Contact Information: Click to Buy! |
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The cover art of InfraRed really
grabbed me, even before I listened to the CD. Imagine a carnival at night, with
mysterious faces appearing in the glow of colored lights, or a candle-lit
encounter with intimate friends. Images as warm, exotic and mysterious as My
Scarlet Life's music. A perfect precursor to a wonderful album.
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