Azure Ray - s/t
(Warm)
Remember the scenes in Twin Peaks at the Roadhouse when Julee Cruise
would sing haunting, gloomy songs. This is perhaps the best comparison
to Azure Ray's music. Similar to Angelo Badalamenti's music from
Twin Peaks, the songs are dark and moody, sounding equally influenced
by New Wave pop and Midwestern Americana. Atop this are incredibly
soft female vocals, sounding so light and airy that it contrasts with
the music, giving the music's morose feeling a pop aura.
Azure Ray is the duo of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor who led
the Geffen-signed Belly-sound-alike Little Red Rocket and have made guest
appearances with Bright Eyes and Japancakes. Their
self-titled debut was produced and arranged by Eric Bachmann of Archers
of Loaf and Crooked Fingers who gives the spare music a deceptively
layered sound. The music is so low and thin that it is easy to miss
a lap steel, singing saw, or saxophone lurking in the background--attention is
needed to appreciate the arrangement, much more so than Bachmann's recent
outstanding solo work.
Fink and Taylor's sound has moved far away from the indie pop of their
previous band and closer to singer-songwriter material similar to Bachmann's
Crooked Fingers, Bright Eyes, Cat Power, and Edith Frost. Their lyrics,
however, haven't seemed to have changed as much. They are well done, but,
like pop, they seem to be more focused on metaphor than meaning, and the
emotion of the songs suffers from that.
Adding to this distraction from the emotion of the songs is the quality of the vocals. The vocals are
quite pretty with Fink and Taylor singing co-lead but sounding as one, but
this contrast between the vocals and the dark sound and subject matter seems to negate the
emotion of the songs. You could call me sexist, and perhaps you'd be right.
However, I have the feeling if Marshall or Frost were to sing these songs with
their earthier, grittier voices, I would hang on every word instead of letting
the airy quality of the delivery cause the words and meaning to float away.
With Fink and Taylor's more feminine voices, I'm so wrapped up in listening to
the sound, I can't hear the words. Perhaps more needs to be done lyrically
to emphasize the emotion of the prose.
Despite this, Azure Ray's music is enjoyable. Their debut album is best
appreciated as minimal, pretty pop music, and in that arena, it fairs rather
well.
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