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KRISTIN HERSH - LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR
In Shock / Nerve Endings / Day Glo / Christian Hearse / Ice / Under The Gun / Piano 1 / Sugarbaby / Peggy Lee / Piano 2 / Vertigo / Winter / Wild Vanilla / The Thin Man
4AD
After twenty years as a singer/songwriter and with fifteen albums under her belt, the 2007 version of Kristin Hersh is someone still banging out songs with impressive ease and her usual intensity. LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR finds the former Throwing Muses founder and occasional 50 Foot Wave member surfacing in her solo musician guise on a collection of songs dealing with recent occurrences in her life; her home being destroyed in Hurricane Katrina providing the driving force behind songs such as DAY GLO and UNDER THE GUN.
LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR is a record that veers between intense aggression and haunting beauty, songs such as the alt-rocking opener IN SHOCK sounding about as loud and intense as anything she's ever done, whilst the hauntingly fragile NERVE ENDINGS finding Kristin Hersh as naked and bare as anything previous. The shimmering indie rock of SUGAR BABY is a song reminiscent of her sister Tanya Donnelly's band Belly, a sparkling slice of melodic pop complete with big pop choruses and cascading power chords.
The acoustic driven PEGGY LEE sees Hersh crooning effectively against a stark guitar strum and mournful cello swells, an achingly gorgeous affair that holds up to her acclaimed first solo record Hips And Makers. Elsewhere, its a case of business as usual; songs such as the acoustic folk of VERTIGO or the dark gothica of WINTER, finding Kristin Hersh on predictably impressive form, her cracked and husky voice hitting the melodies with the usual sublime results. Album closer THE THIN MAN, revels in nightmarish vocal imagery and dark musical directions, stark acoustic guitar chords and melancholic cello and violin strains combining to end things on a beautiful but sombre high.
Fifteen albums in, and showing no signs of fatigue, LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR finds Kristin Hersh on suitably impressive form, a collection of songs the equal of anything she's previously achieved. A beautiful, angry, sublime, intense record, LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR is another towering achievement.
BIOGRAPHY
WHO IS KRISTIN HERSH?
Twenty years and fifteen albums into her career, the question reasserts itself. The teenage girl who formed Throwing Muses, who mesmerized eighties alternakids with songs like "Delicate Cutters" and "Soul Soldier" did not grow up to scream, "shut the fuck up" while fronting the blisteringly loud and fast 50 Foot Wave, did she ? Yes, she did, and she managed six solo albums in between. It's been a riveting rollercoaster of a career - and, as Learn To Sing Like A Star effortlessly demonstrates, it's one that is still reaching new heights.
Hersh was in high school when she formed Throwing Muses, the first of many American bands to sign to 4AD. Throwing Muses offered dazzling musical expressions of psychic chaos. Tempos and moods ricocheted wildly. The songs roamed and startled and defied categorization. The young band made eight albums in ten years (1986-1996) during which time Hersh bore three sons. It was a fertile decade, for sure, and a tumultuous one, too. A psychiatric diagnosis, a child custody battle, a lawsuit by a former manager, and step-sister Tanya Donelly's exodus from the band all combined to produce behind-the-scenes experiences as anything Throwing Muses captured on disc.
But by 1993, Hersh's personal life had stabilized, and she found herself hearing songs that, to her surprise, didn't sound like Throwing Muses songs. So, she recorded them solo and called the album Hips and Makers. And something unexpected happened. This small, personal record took off, outselling all of Throwing Muses albums, and expanding Hersh's fanbase at a time when Throwing Muses was ceasing to be economically viable. When Hersh sang (in 1989's "Devil's Roof") "I have two heads", she might have been predicting her future, and a career that saw her moving constantly between two musical headspaces : BandKristin and SoloKristin.
And in the songs everything is mixed up together. Pure darkness and pure light just don’t exist. Love is like a beesting (Hips and Makers), like kissing gravel (Limbo), like a velvet bed of nails (Sunny Border Blue). Joy and sadness complement and mediate each other.
But there has been progression, too. The dazzling disarray of the early work has given way to something mature, accomplished, but no less distinctive. The voice has grown deeper and richer and the songs now take flight without leaving anyone dizzy.
Hersh conceived another son (her fourth) in 2002, and another band (her second) in 2004. Finding solo performance often "insular and a bit of a mindfuck", Hersh formed 50 Foot Wave, so satisfying her craving to play with once again with a rock band. 50 Foot Wave was conceived as a DIY, tour-intensive project - the band prioritized the live experience and literally gave music away on Hersh's website at www.throwingmusic.com.
But enough backtracking. Here's the present, in the shape of the glorious Learn To Sing Like A Star. Here's a big, spacious, sumptuous record with emphatic energy ("In Shock" and "Winter"), stripped ballads ("Nerve Endings" and "Ice"), deceptively breezy upbeat numbers ("Under The Gun" and "Wild Vanilla"), a couple of dreamy tunes ("Vertigo" and "Sugar Baby"), and three quirky, hand-made instrumentals. The album features beautiful strings, played by British friends, Martin and Kim McCarrick. David Narcizo (from Throwing Muses) supplies the drums (and also the album cover) while Kristin plays everything else. "No sound went down on this record unchallenged," Hersh explains, "if we'd heard it before - a surf-guitar, for instance - we layered it with piano reverb, tubular bells, and backwards bass to create something more unusual, something with more character."
And the title — is there a story there ? Of course there is... Kristin traded mixes and fixes on the record via email with engineer Trina Shoemaker. And every time she tried to download a mix, she says, "I'd see this recurring piece of spam with the subject line Learn To Sing Like A Star ! At first it was just a ludicrous piece of junk email, but then it started to sound moving to me, like, why not sing for the cosmos instead of the music business ? And suddenly, there wasn't a better name for the record." And if the lyrics often hint at bad times to come, maybe the title offers a prophecy of a brighter hue ? A reference to the meteoric rise to fame Hersh will soon experience as a result of this record ? Hersh laughs, raucous and sceptical. "Yeah, that’s probably it."
LINE UP
Kristin Hersh
David Narcizo
Martin McCarrick
Kimberlee McCarrick
DISCOGRAPHY
LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR (4AD>2007)
In Shock
Nerve Endings
Day Glo
Christian Hearse
Ice
Under The Gun
Piano 1
Sugarbaby
Peggy Lee
Piano 2
Vertigo
Winter
Wild Vanilla
The Thin Man
LINKS
Kristin Hersh>www.throwingmusic.com
FURTHER LISTENING
The Throwing Muses
Belly
The Breeders
Review date: February 2007 |
