Albums of the Year # 30 Lael Neale - Star Eaters Delight

 

An outstanding new release from last week that I'm only just getting round to. Lael Neale's third album Star Eaters Delight on Sub Pop has more than enough vim and vigour to separate it instantly from the Singer / Songwriter pack.

In fact the very term 'Singer Songwriter'  is becoming an increasingly reductive, inadequate term for pigeon wholing music and artists these days. To my mind it summons up thoughts of Joni and James Taylor and we live in an entirely different universe from the one they chronicled in the early Seventies. Just listen to Star Eaters Delight for ample evidence of this.

It's a record that seems fueled by Mexican jumping beans, it doesn't hang around for a moment of it's eight track, 35 minute run. It's sheer delight in vinyl form, best sat through in a single sitting. I doubt you'll hear a record that is so simply thrilled to be alive all year.

Neale's voice is the obvious main drawing card of the album, but actually I'd say that this is deceptive. Still it's an instrument of natural clarity and beauty. But its the way its used, in harmony with the arrangement, orchestration and general production here that makes the record such a must hear.

Comparison points are often a sticking point in the way I try to describe records I'm excited by. Sometimes they're obvious and immediate and also necessary in order to describe where a band or artist are coming from or what they're trying to do.

In Neale's case I'd say comparisons are not really necessary. The record is best listened to. I'd just quote her Spotify bio to give you an idea of what the woman herself is like; 'she splits her time between rural Virginia and Los Angeles. She loves walking, Emerson, fantasy fiction espresso and not listening to music. She is an amateur gardener, painter and musician.' 

She sounds great doesn't she? So does her record. In fact it has something magical about it. Spectral if you will. Another really special album in a year that seems blessed with them. Another to add to your list of things you need to hear.