[Pregnant pause]... Can I just say I've made a most serendipitous discovery. I was just sitting here clearing my plate of waiting reviews, when I pick up this cd "Wind Chains" by Molly Zenobia. Intriguing album cover of a fair, dark haired girl staring back at me through a filter of blue. It almost looks post-mortem...She certainly "looks" goth.
    
Intrigued, I slide the disc into my player. A brief flourish of an electro intro, before the piano and yes, the voice is introduced. This is an old voice, a lived in voice. She could very well be channeling long dead songstresses of the golden age of Jazz and Blues. She possesses an old worldliness, and a new world edginess that makes for an irresistable combination. Her piano is a living, breathing extension of her already more than adequate means of expression. It breathes, swells, moans, and weeps. I'm tempted to compare her to artists I already know and love, as a means of reference. However, Molly Zenobia deserves more than comparisons. She is doubtless influenced, and yet still an original that will only grow more so with time. She may not be "goth" by popular definition. But, I've always held to the idea that goth is a view of the world and feelings that spring from that unique view, that differentiate one from the masses living at life's surface.. And so, I embrace this dark hued music as the familiar messanger of my own heart. Below are just a few favorites off an album by no means spare in exquisite offerings.

FROZEN - Is the opening track on this disc, and it writhes in the exposure of a wound, still raw. Drawn to and repelled by one another, how can love prevail against the defenses and inconsistency of emotional unavailibility? If it's going to happen, it's got to happen soon. "Frozen" is a particularly effective lament and plea in one.

PORCUPINE - is a smokey, lilting inventory of a love life, perhaps. I read porcupine, as an aka for prick. The possibilities aren't inspiring, but she is conscious of the fact that her own investment in these "pricks" isn't that serious. She doesn't know any more about her own expectations, than they do about fulfilling them..."I'm walking, I'm talking, I can't see where I'm going." This is a frequent replay, great song!

FADE - Zenobia's voice opens this chiller up, and then her piano chimes in, in assent. It is another moving lullaby of loss and regret. She struggles with the recurrent theme of two lives passing and never meeting, strangers in the night. It is short, but it says what I've found her to say all to articulately.

As I close out this sojourn with Molly Zenobia, I'd like to encourageany lover of piano, vocals, and great song writing to delve into thisdeep, still, and still disturbing well. This is thoughtful, meditative music, cloth cut from the coat of all our experience.

Track Listings
1. Frozen
2. Porcupine
3. Whirlpool
4. Mermaids
5. Porcelain
6. Hello
7. Bubblegum
8. Paper Clip
9. Tombstone
10. Lullabee
11. King Aeolus
12. Fade
13. Silent Spring
14. Night Light

Web Site: MollyZenobia.Com

02/10/03