En die dacht dat Sam Burton pareltjes afleverde die refereren naar folk en pop uit de jaren zestig/zeventig. Na het beluisteren van Desire Path ben ik toch wat van mijn melk. Bijna niet te geloven hoe hedendaagse muzikanten enerzijds die sfeer van weleer kunnen capteren en anderzijds toch met beide voeten in het heden staan. Vera Sola gooit er hier een batterij strijkers tegenaan, wat synths en een akoestische gitaar. Dat alles in omgekeerde volgorde en in crescendo. Compleet gek hoe het nummer tekeergaat en net niet ontspoort. Misschien best te omschrijven als orkestrale ghost folk in een 60's pop jasje.
Lees
"I wrote this after screwing up a Brenda Lee song I was teaching myself to play one insomniac’s morning. The twisting chords laid out a story of awakening to compounded delusion, denial, despair.
The simplest way to describe it is a descent, or even better, an ascent into madness. Form follows subject—it’s the most insane song I’ve ever composed. A scattershot of key changes and ratcheting modulations. I knew from first blush it required very specific strings. 13 violins drifting, moment by moment, more and more out of tune only for a madman’s synth to break through the soundscape, take over the melody and run it into the ground. It was the last thing we recorded in person before lockdown.
Imagine a 60’s ballad, aggravated. Backed by a string section that’s gradually replaced by increasingly agitated locusts. Now imagine the locusts are trapped in your skull. :)
It’s the centerpiece of something big and bold and maximalist and wild which has been gestating for a long, long time."
- Vera -
Vera Sola has never fit any mold or followed in any footsteps—not even those of her own making. Her newest release blows out the walls of what she’d established before. Where debut album Shades was made almost entirely alone, "Desire Path" was co-produced with Kenneth Pattengale, and recorded in Nashville with over a dozen contributing musicians. It marks a dramatic shift from the shadowy, enclosed nature of her first recordings, to a sweeping new sonic landscape. As a result, her unique vision and sound is now fully realised with renewed focus on her remarkable voice. This most recent effort proves that she remains “an utterly singular talent.”
