Review Summary: A beautiful and stunning work.
Before I took a legitimate listen to Christina Carter’s first of three albums released so far this year, titled
Masque Femine, I was thinking that this Carter woman that I’ve heard so many glowing things about better have the greatest voice of, like, all time. I mean, she’s an a cappella singer, and since I’m not really well-versed in a cappella music, nor have I ever listened to an a cappella album before, I naturally assumed that an entire album built around one person’s voice would showcase some of the better singing I’ve heard in a while. I mean, that only makes sense, right? Right?
Christina Carter does not have the greatest voice of all time. I mean, it’s a good voice, and her vocals more than do the job for
Masque Femine, but lets just say that she couldn’t win any reality shows. Half the time her whispery faint breeze of a voice can barely be heard against the tape hum and the silence. But, after only a few listens of
Masque Femine, it’s obvious that no one else could else create a work like this; no matter how good their voice is, and I realized very quickly how wrong my distorted assumption of what an a cappella singer did was. Carter’s voice bristles with pain-staking emotion, and the bare bones and simplistic tales of loss and defeat match her voice perfectly. Despite that the actual singing is usually pretty bright and that Carter’s vocals mostly operate in the higher registers, much of
Masque Femine is gloomy and depressing. Thankfully, in order to keep this stunning work from being a complete downer, Carter sprinkles some acoustic tracks throughout. On the a cappella songs, Carter sings longer phrases, mostly in order to fill the space where instruments usually occupy. This style adds that sort of gloominess that I’ve already mentioned, as well as a bit of tension. However, these acoustic tracks allow Carter to sing with more precision and more directness, with the softly strummed guitar doing all that other background work. I often find these acoustic tracks as a sort of interlude between long stretches of barren tracks featuring nothing but Carter’s voice, almost as a sort of reliving tension breaker. It really ties
Masque Femine together as an album, and as an even more stunning piece of art.
Masque Femine, however, is not perfect. As an album, as a complete work, this moves smoothly and cohesively. However, individual songs are near impossible to decipher from the swirl, due to all the awkward pauses Carter takes in between singing, and it’s hard to tell whether a song is ending or if Carter’s just taking a breath. Plus, most, if not all, of these a cappella songs sound waaaaaay too similar, and the same problem unfortunately resides in the acoustically based tracks. Hell,
Masque Femine often hears like three elongated a cappella suites with some more embellished interludes placed throughout. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the album is obviously meant to be listened to as a whole, but the absence of a signature track or an overwhelming stand out brings the overall experience of the album for me slightly.
But, if you couldn’t already tell, that’s obviously a more personal quibble, and it barely brings down my overall enjoyment of the album. Plus, I haven’t hear an album this cohesive and stunning yet in 2008, and
Masque Femine has a real shot at being the best this year has to offer. It’s too bad there isn’t any hype surrounding Christina Carter’s releases, or that no big-name indie webzine has picked up on this woman’s brilliance. God knows she deserves it.
