I purchased a bunch of new albums over the past week, but my crazy work and life schedule has prevented me from listening to any. Worse still, looking forward I don’t see it happening for at least another week. I guess I could watch less mid-week TV, but who are we kidding? I’m gonna watch that TV. I need to know what happens to those Locke & Key kids, damn it!
Fortunately, I am still finding time to listen to albums for the CD Odyssey, so here’s the latest!
Disc 1514 is…. Graceful Rage
Artist: Harmony Woods
Year of Release: 2021
What’s up with the Cover? Ophelia sat bolt upright and crossed her legs. “Damn that Hamlet!” Then, wondering why the notion of drowning had ever appealed, she gathered up her graceful rage and set off along the shore. At length she came across the hovel of a local fisherwoman and, after borrowing some dry clothes, left Denmark for good.
She was last seen living the good life on her own terms in Patagonia, free of vengeful ghosts, overprotective brothers and idiot princes alike.
How I Came To Know It: I read a review online and I thought it sounded interesting, so gave it a shot.
How It Stacks Up: This is my only Harmony Woods album so it can’t really stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars
Whimsical album cover narratives aside, “Graceful Rage” is an album about emerging from the depths of despair with a furious resilience. There is plenty of sadness to be had in these eight short songs, but they’re also songs of defiance and survival. And Ophelia doesn’t just live in this version; she’s got some things to get off her chest.
Harmony Woods is not (as the cover may suggest) a folk singer, but rather the name of an indie pop/rock band, fronted by singer Sofia Verbilla. And if you are looking for pale and wan birdsong on acoustic guitars, you will not find it here. “Graceful Rage” has some serious crunch, and the band is reminiscent as much of rock bands like Garbage as they are of the lighter side of pop.
Verbilla’s vocals are not overpowering, but she has the soul of a punk rocker and belts each tune out with truth and intensity. She’s both vulnerable and strong, and the combination of rock crunch and pop song structures reminded me favourably of bands like Camp Cope and Beach Bunny. On “Easy” she is at her finest, hitting an anthemic power that has her evoke her full power even as the liquid reverb of the guitar reflects the emotional turmoil of the experience.
Thematically, the record gives voice to women exiting (or reflecting back) on relationships with what sounds like some serious dickheads. I’m not sure if the record is about one individual dickhead, a collection of divers bastards or a single jerk-amalgam cobbled from multiple experiences. Whatever the case, they do not come off well. There’s gaslighting, emotional blackmail and douchebaggery to spare.
But for all the references to this jerk (or collection of jerks), the focus of the songs is not about them, but rather the strength of the women who emerge from the shadows they cast. There is a lot of sadness here, but there’s also a lot of catharsis.
The music matches the mood, with mournful melodies morphing into crescendos of sound, that subside back into something softer only to soar with anger anew. The music reflects an iterative and ongoing process rather than a full resolution, although as the final song, “I Can’t” crests with “you will never hurt me again/I can’t forgive you” you feel like there is a victory to be claimed from the rubble.
Even though I realized and appreciated that it was a part of the music’s emotional journey, I still found the arrangements a bit clangorous from time to time and on songs like “Good Luck Rd.” it got in the way of the bones of some solid songwriting. At other times (“God’s Gift to Women”) all that crash and bang was exactly what made the song amazing and powerful.
The overall impact was uneven, but I appreciated how these songs takes no prisoners; eviscerating failed relationships and leaving us to find what wisdom and solace we can in what remains.
Best tracks: Easy, God’s Gift to Women, I Can’t
No comments:
Post a Comment