Review Summary: Another confident step in what could shape up into a musical career worth keeping an eye on.
For whatever reasons – probably not unrelated to the rise of one ginger-haired English songwriter by the name of Ed Sheeran – the past few years have seen a massive insurgence of folk- or indie-based pop music, a fad that has pumped out album after album of pretty-voiced singers and their prettily-written songs. Along with it there seems to be some notion carried that if you like your pop music set to a generic acoustic backdrop as opposed to a generic synthesized beat, your music taste is somehow more 'respectable' or 'informed' than your peers. In reality it's an easy formula to follow with a big pay-off. Pick up an acoustic guitar. Find some pretty chords. Sing some pretty melodies. Pick a subject from the book of everyday hardships for everyday folk. Congratulations, you made a pop song, but not one of
those pop songs; yours is real music, because yours is
raw and yours discusses
real issues and, well, yours is prettier. Mess up your hair, throw on some flannel shirts, and start selling out venues to fans of your
real (but still successfully charting) music.
Except, of course, the blandness of this brand of faux-folk can be quickly brought to light if required. Compare the flatness of an Ed Sheeran album with the brute emotional force with which records like Nick Drake's
Pink Moon or the more recent classic of Bon Iver's
For Emma, Forever Ago hit you. All three are singing pretty melodies with pretty acoustic guitars, but, well, the latter two are just doing it right. To genuinely succeed as a respectable singer-songwriter, you have to be playing acoustic music because your songs are so damn good that you can do them justice with minimal instrumentation; not because you're disguising your formulaic tripe with a 'sophisticated' folksy setting.
So where does that leave the pretty voice and pretty songs of singer-songwriter Ché Aimee Dorval? Five years ago, in 2009, Ché's first album
Underachiever presented music that fell neatly into the 'pop-folk' category. On the one hand, moments of genuine, relatable honesty and stop-and-think lyricism (“I've been known to panic at the drop of a dime/Turn molehills into landslides”), coupled with a few hints of almost bluesy folk leanings, lent the songs some real staying power. On the other hand, this wasn't enough to keep the album as a whole sounding distinct and unique; here we had a collection of pretty acoustic pop being dropped into an ocean of it, and to succeed in such a genre,
Underachiever needed to be able to not only stay afloat but be able to stand up and walk on the damn water as well.
After about half a decade of silence, a collaboration with progressive rock mastermind/commander of small army of followers Devin Townsend on the haunted Casualties of Cool has shown the music industry that Dorval is far from another artist jumping on the acoustic pop bandwagon, lending some absolutely heart-wrenching melodies and vocal delivery to the project.
Volume One follows hot on it's heels, and thankfully adds another solid pillar to Dorval's slowly unfolding artistic identity. The EP builds on similar ground as it's predecessor, but it's songs are crafted with a new air of confidence and uniqueness; record highlight 'Loosing My Sleep' has a bluesy swagger and a chorus that immediately demands attention, making it instantly memorable and infatuating. The emotional delivery of album opener 'Do You Ever' provides a similar moment of importance, conveying some serious emotion as Dorval's vocals slip in and out of falsetto towards the song's climax.
Overall, the songwriting is strong to say the least here. A heavier focus on minor-key music and a more mature lyrical palette give the EP a much more weathered feel than the happy-go-lucky innocence of
Underachiever, and a few more musical curveballs lend it enough variation to remain engrossing throughout it's 20 minute runtime; the aforementioned 'Loosing My Sleep' and 'Back Again' offer a little extra drive, while others slow things down for a more reflective atmosphere; Hell, there's even a couple surprisingly tasteful guitar solos thrown in to spice up the acoustic-based backdrop. Ché's vocals are beautiful as always too, powerful and weathered yet smooth and sweet at the same time. She delivers her lines with passion and an again almost bluesy sense of wisdom to match the contemplative lyrics. This is still very much a pop-based folk album, but with a lot more flavors and spices thrown in the mix than with others of it's kind; a more prominent rhythm section here, a catchy chorus there, and an ear for actual, varied emotion other than just "pretty" or "sweet;" 'The Throws' is decidedly bleak and remorseful, 'Lights Out' exudes confidence and hope, 'We Go' a sense of uncertainty.
To answer our previous question of where the pretty voice and pretty songs of Ché Aimee Dorval are left in an industry that is mass producing carbon-copy 'pretty songs,' it may be too early to tell. But if nothing else, this year has proven that Dorval is the real deal, and Volume One provides 20 minutes of minor-key, bluesy reassurance that this is truly music from the heart. It may not be the most original or life-changing release you ever hear, but these are no doubt the first confident steps towards a sound that is distinctly Ché, and I look forward to hearing the progression continue.
