Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions Bavarian Fruit Bread
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions Bavarian Fruit Bread
First solo project from the ex-singer of the band Mazzy Star, Bavarian Fruit Bread is a bare album which reveals its beauty in the subtlety of harmonies on the edge of lethargy.
If the CD seems soporific at first, one is slowly overcome by a pleasant sensation before totally falling under the bewitching charm of these nonchalant ballads. Hope Sandoval's voice is more haunting than ever while the mostly acoustic instrumental venture into landscapes that are sometimes noisy and sometimes psychedelic, reminiscent of The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain. In Hope Sandoval's universe, the music and vocals serve to create an atmosphere.
Extracting a Jesus and Mary Chain track from Automatic, "Drop" opens the album with beauty. "Suzanne" flirts openly with Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" (up to the backing vocals on the chorus) and offers a moment of happiness. "Butterfly Mornings " paces up and down the roads of Americana with a taste for the rustic, nodding to blue grass, a more visible trend since the success of the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Accordion and feedback cross each other on the catchy "On the Low". Hope becomes a medieval troubadour on "Feeling of Gaze" with its grave cellos. "Charlotte" gets closer to Mazzy Star whereas "Clear Day" is the another infectious acoustic ballad. Following the unremarkable "Bavarian Fruit Bread", a peaceful "Around My Smile" could almost close the LP as a charming lullaby if it were not for "Lose Me On The Way", a noisy dream (or nightmare) with a velvet touch.
A perfect companion to a moment of serenity, Bavarian Fruit Bread is an album that deserves a careful ear.
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions Bavarian Fruit Bread
