Night Bugs

Author: Sarah Slean

Brand: CD

PartNumber: 293093

Release Date: 19-03-2002

Details: From Amazon Though it's her major-label debut, Sarah Slean's Night Bugs is as idiosyncratic and delightful as her indie releases. As a singer-pianist with theatrical airs, she's bound to garner comparisons with Tori Amos, but this Toronto-based 24-year-old's music has more in common with emerging singer-songwriters like Rufus Wainwright, Ed Harcourt, and her co-producer and musical collaborator, Hawksley Workman. Like those artists, Slean is steeped in the tradition of Tin Pan Alley yet determined to create a style that's vivid, flamboyant, and modern. Alternately witty and despairing, her lyrics detail moments spent "with my paints and my pens and my dry vermouth" (from "Book Smart, Street Stupid"). She's also equipped with an extraordinary voice, at times similar to Sarah McLachlan's, but much stronger and more malleable. Moreover, Slean is fond of all those vocal whoops and swoops that were so endearing on Mary Margaret O'Hara's classic Miss America. Slean and Workman made most of Night Bugs at Bearsville Studios in upstate New York, and the higher recording budget has apparently given their imaginations free rein. They're especially lavish when it comes to the string and horn arrangements. The strings infuse the instrumental "Dark Room" with a sense of cinematic grandeur, while "Book Smart, Street Stupid" has all the gritty majesty and maudlin charm of a Tom Waits ballad circa Swordfishtrombones. The arrangements also add bluster and ballast to uptempo songs like "Drastic Measures," "Sweet Ones," and "Bank Accounts." Elsewhere, the sound is spare and spooky, when just piano and guitar create a haunting setting for "St. Francis." Seemingly undaunted by any of the challenges she poses herself, Slean hurtles through the different moods on Night Bugs with great aplomb. The resulting songs are as rich and colourful as one could hope. -- Jason Anderson

UPC: 075679309327

EAN: 0075679309327

Model: 293093

Languages: English

Binding: audioCD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood