'Performances' by Land of Talk
'Performances' by Land of Talk
The Beatles and Taylor Swift have proven that not every musician or band’s fanbase will shout “Judas!” upon hearing a change of artistic (and, yes, commercial) direction. Land of Talk—at times a band, at other times not quite a band, at all times the vision of Montreal-based musician Elizabeth Powell—has a more indie fanbase, but Performances shouldn’t be the change to turn them away.
With the decisiveness that Powell has taken on the “they/them” pronouns, they’ve used Land of Talk’s fifth album to make keyboards rather than electric guitars the main if not sole driver. This shifts songs to a quieter mode, and Powell’s choice to undertake most of the material herself, as player and as producer, turns them into more internal experiences.
“Intro (High Bright High),” one of several instrumentals on the album, makes that internality clear with a little less than a minute of synth pathfinding that sounds and feels the way raindrops on a window look when the sunset shines through them. “Your Beautiful Self” is not unlike the chill that follows the sunset, Powell’s voice going from deadpan to floaty against dark piano rumbles.
Powell’s sweeter vocal side comes through often, in the aching, enigmatic romanticism of “Rainbow Protection,” in the hints of Squeeze or Crowded House’s eyes-down balladry on “Sitcom,” or in the electronic wobbling and analog crackles of “Fluorescent Blood.”
Yet Performances closes with another instrumental: the seven-minute “Pwintiques” [sic], on which Powell and fellow Montreal resident Laurie Torres play drums and percussion with hammer-heavy steadiness while Powell’s bass and keyboards muse until a coda of drones seems to reverberate even after the track is done.
In that reverberation and the musings, Powell and Land of Talk have become more like Tamara Lindeman and the Weather Station, a contemporary Canadian project of lounge-ready jazziness brushed like melted butter over a charred heart. The fanbase will not riot.
|
|
Stream or download mp3s of Performances by Land of Talk at Amazon here.
