Raw like rare steak served in chunky cuts, deceptive, guitar alone or brash and heavy. Scratchy and spare, around 'The Party' centerpiece.
The music can be so repetitive I should hate this stuff, but Cynthia Dall gets away with it.
Sinister and engrossing, the iTMS bites from 'Sound Restores Young Men' (Sep 2002) drew me at once. With a woman-child's voice not always clear behind the wall.
 Before I knock off for a while, Dall (promo pic) gets her turn. Heck, the very title's right for a mood I've had: strange and wanting strange.
Getting just the music and cover art at the iTMS price, without the extras, can be worth it, slowly to realise it's a "concept album", replayed, still half-understood.
It must be spring: what better time for a swiftly met, eyes-closed feeling of intimacy with a near stranger in the dark? Who's undressing the other? Who's thinking? It's tactile music, an exploration, familiar and weird.
At Venuszine, Noreen Sobczyk filled holes:
"Sound Restores Young Men is supposed to tell the story of a young woman struck mute after witnessing her mother's murder. I had a hard time following that story, and found it similar to trying to discern the plot of a David Lynch film. (...)
The music is earnest but simplistic. Sound Restores Young Men sounds like the first effort of a performer just finding her voice (it's actually her second album) ... I look at Cynthia Dall as a diamond in the rough, and look forward to hearing future efforts."
Mute, OK, but there's more. And Noreen wants more "dissonance ... tension". I agree, along with her Lynch feeling; but 'ananas_bracteatus' (Amazon US, comment is sparing anywhere), gets
"a wish to explode with joy and laugh at the same time. I just have this haunting fear that she is singing the most evil BS. That her lyrics worship the nazi god and that she is condemning the underappreciated practice of abortion. I don't need the christian right (or its close hippy surrogates) in my life."
I don't know about the "most evil BS" and this isn't a great album, but often pretty good, and will get a third and more hearings, from 'Be Safe with Me' through to 'Snake Blood and Vodka' ... when I'm in a Pandora's box mood.
Buy this? At an iTMS or Amazon Fr price, sure, if you want to risk a fresh soundtrack for a dangerous mood. Or wickedly jealous...
"When you talk about her, I feel as if I'd been in her myself," Dall sings in the core track, a thought spoken aloud.
It's painful, it's private, it's certainly not that white dress. Next time, I'd like to hear more of the strength sometimes apparent in Cynthia's voice, too often closed in here -- deliberately?
zzz
Reality kicks in with a "Damn, I know what I'd die for, kiss me improbably stupid!" but 'Sound Restores Young Men' is adult fantasy territory.
So I like it, a counterpoint when drained by screenplay nights and early rising, and nourished by a deep hope to be kept to myself. Yeah, even by me, though logging and life have inexorably said, "Open up! There's no shame in it any more."
I plead my right to private full fantasy nights. The finest fantasies should end up being shared, but not with everybody. They're like the secrets I'll keep but ask some of you to keep coming in.
The next VoW must wait a while. Meanwhile, just a tip. On my list, 'Before the Poison', Marianne Faithfull's latest. Venuszine last month caught her act.
I've got to finish the mail!
The previous entry, by the way, needed a rewrite, only partly for fun. When I ask people, "Are entries getting too long, please be honest?" they say "No", better "Not yet"; sometimes mutter about (fifth?) columnist.
If you disagree, say so. I'm adaptable.
12:46:22 AM link 
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