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From: Amplifier
jubilant newborn alien haze
Despite the title, this is NOT a Guided by Voices album. Virginia-to-Manhattan transplant Brown is infernally difficult to describe without resorting to lists of otherwise completely unrelated artists who she occasionally vaguely resembles. So I'll just make a couple of observations. In this album's press kit, Brown says that Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger inspired her to become a songwriter, and to be honest, her lyrics have the same stream of consciousness impenetrability that was Simon Le Bon's stock in trade.
Happily, she's also a terrific singer, with the scratchy emotional intensity of Lisa Germano and the controlled warmth of Beth Orton, and as opaque as the lyrics are, you can still tell that they seem to mean something to her. Brown has created a remarkably varied album that touches on numerous styles, often within the same song.
Oh, all right, I'll just make the list: I hear Tapestry-style singer-songwriter rock, Kate Bush-like art pop, Beck-esque sampledelic whimsy, Elvis Costello's slippery vocal melodies and elastic sense of song structure, Jill Scott's try-anything once spirit and the emotional intensity of Aimee Mann minus the soul-baring lyrics. Singer-songwriters as eclectically gifted as Julia Brown almost never reach the audiences they deserve, but anyone who doesn't hear the loping, acoustic-guitar-driven "This Is Your Day" is missing one of the most sublime pop treasures of the year. This is someone to watch.
-Stewart Mason
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