Lily Holbrook - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Author: L.A. Solinas
Release Date: 2005/04/01
Label: Back Porch
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Boston chanteuse Lily Holbrook got her start as a busker -- meaning she started off singing in subway stations and the like, before landing a record deal. Now there's Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt, her second album, and the first for this label, a remarkably diverse kind of electrofolkpop.
But ignore the the Americana-folk labels that are attached to the Back Porch Records label. This music not that simple, and Holbrook's style is one of those rare ones that defies any obvious labels. Instead, Holbrook sounds like an ethereal fusion of Bjork's offbeatness and Tori Amos' songwriting and vocals. "So you can/strike me with your matches/scatter me like ashes..."
The opening track, the stately and ominous "Welcome To the Slaughterhouse," is like no folkpop you've ever heard before. From there on, Holbrook doesn't stray too far from the ethereal folk sound, with acoustic guitar and some fiddling as the heart of her music.
But she does stray a little bit: quirky distortion pop, ethereal acoustic folk songs, string ballads, and murky light rock'n'roll. There's even some distortion, fuzzy bass, whistles and electronic swooshes here and there, to give some extra flavour to the music. As a result, it sounds a lot like Amos or Kate Bush by way of Bjork.
A quick scan over the song titles shows just how unusual this album is -- one of the songs is an Ozzy Osbourne cover. Not typical folk fare. She even dips into catchy pop in "When In Rome," a sly dig at people who "trying to convince her to be the next Britney Spears." Good thing she didn't listen to them. It's the one foray into pop-as-we-know-it, and Holbrook wisely keeps her tongue in cheek.
It's also one of the few humorous moments -- most of the time, Holbrook is melancholy. "Now I don't know why/she keeps building walls/that leave him outside/she can't find the reason/she's passing through seasons..." she sings sadly in her fragile-sounding voice. I'm not sure if these bittersweet songs are written from her own life, but Holbrook sings them with a lot of passion.
Despite the odd happy song, Lily Holbrook's sophomore album Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt is a bittersweet, intense folk-pop album with a dash of electronic quirk. A wonderful listen, and an artist to watch.
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Reader's Comments:
:: 23:34 Sunday 26 Jun"everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" was an epitaph in Kurt Vonnegut's classic Slaughterhouse 5... welcome to the slaughterhouse indeed. Its a book. Read it.
travis lee :: 12:31 Tuesday 14 Junthe album title seems quite similar to mewithoutyou's song "everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt".
interesting.
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