Delmo Rec.
The Black Swans : Who will walk in the darkness with you ? (US,2004)**°°'
The titletrack, "Who will walk in the darkness with you ?" with which the release starts is slightly embarrassing -in a for me acceptable way- of almost being too “real” and in-your-face. The vocals here deliberately don’t follow the easiest way to follow a core of melody but disarms it, making he song emotionally stronger. In the next few tracks it is directed with more recognisable standards. Still I’m reminded of Fred Neil’s approach to bring emotion in the vocal technique, even when Jerry DeCicca’s voice is pretty relaxed in what he’s doing, perhaps even somewhat spontaneous and intuitive. The band accompanies softly (with drums, electric guitar, bass, violin). “Song without you” has an acoustic guitar lead, with strings that penetrate with space and breath, and a slow tension in movement, in voice and song.. On “The Raft” the voice has the most broken tension in expression with the melody, which could be a weak point if it was overdone, but here it gives the music a strong hazy emotional tension. “Hours never end” is led by minimal piano and voice. "Rocks in my shows" works slightly more in directing towards the audience in its expressions, without really succeeding in leaving the private domain, but the band does.
I can imagine that for those who have expectations of how a voice / singing /expressions should be, preferring melodic virtuosity more than anything else, it can be a barrier to be really open to this music. But for those who feel that honest, modest and strong intuitive emotionality is more important I think I can really recommend this release wholeheartly.
The tension is there, careful, modestly. The vulnerability is not broken but eases through with its careful openness of expressions.
PS. -In this period I only described the music's tensions. I had The Woolfeman to comment on the songwriting later, but this did not always happen, like it didn't happen here.-
