The songs of Washington, D.C.-based singer-guitarist Alice Despard are like New York City rock 'n' roll played on an old Harmony acoustic guitar -- like Patti Smith interpreting the work of Neil Young. Despard fuses her intuitive, poetic observations with a warm mysticism, producing sparse, intellectually muscular songs that resemble nothing so much as four-minute pop hymns. Blending the stark realism of the Velvet Underground with the oblique optimism of early R.E.M., they play as fresh and original while touching some of the most significant bases in modern rock.
Add to this mix the influences of Van Morrison, the Beatles, Mission of Burma, East River Pipe, Vic Chesnutt, and the Sea and Cake, and you find you're listening to a songwriter as distinctive as any in alternative pop. Swinging between poles of urban angst and alt-country pastoralism, Despard fuses the external and the internal, the physical and the spiritual. From her formative years leading the group Hyaa! to a solo career spanning four albums, she has carved out a unique vantage point. With each record, her perspective resonates more deeply.
Despard's new 'Vessel,' released by U.S. indie label Wampus Multimedia, brings her expressive voice to the fore. Comprised of original material both old and new, it reinvents her traditional indie aesthetic as a sort of unamplified melodicism, the abrupt beauty of a singer left standing after all the Marshall stacks have blown. While Despard's recent solo efforts, 'Push Me Pull You' (1999), 'Alice Despard Group' (2000), and 'Thinning of the Veil' (2003), were rooted firmly in the whir-'n'-blur of indie pop, 'Vessel' relies on the arresting candor of her unadorned voice.
While Despard makes what The Washington Post called "lush, ethereal country rock," the music's heady spiritualism is difficult to classify. Whether accompanied solely by her acoustic guitar, or by inventive collaborators Evan Pollack (drums), Philip D'Ambrosio (bass), and Bobby Birdsong (lap steel), Despard leaves sonic fingerprints not found in the recordings of other artists. From the Velvet-esque "The Well" to the soulfully plaintive "By the Way" to the sweetly sparkling "Hold You Up," 'Vessel' speaks to a rich inner life.
Produced by Mark Doyon at Wampus Sound Studio, 'Vessel' is part of the Wampus Multimedia Sessions series, featuring literate singer-songwriters captured in the studio over the course of a single day. The focus falls on the intimacy of performance, evoking the mood of a live show in the context of the studio.
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"Vessel is an enjoyable, melancholic, and warm expose of Despard’s repertoire, and for already existent fans, it's an effective reintroduction of some of her most popular recordings through her passionate reinterpretations. Vessel is sequenced wisely and comes across like a dreamy, twilight recording session." --Sahar Oz, Delusions of Adequacy
"The immediate tie that Despard has to artists of the prior generation (especially Suzanne Vega and Patti Smith) is present through the vocal-heavy opening track 'The Well.' While the amount of instruments on the track is few, the slight country influence and high output by each piece ensures that there is no lack of backdrop for Despard to work with. However blunt of an object the vocals of Despard are on this track, there is some genuinely catchy melody in the vein of Stevie Nicks that comes to light in this opening blast.... The instrumentation present really allows the minor nuances of Despard’s vocals to shine through. What results is a symbiotic relationship where Despard absolutely needs the instrumentation to give another dimension to her voice, but without the vocals the instrumentation would seem a mite bit repetitive. While there is a great deal of cohesion to the tracks on Vessel, each added instrument or change in the general composition of the track (a quickening of the tempo or a slightly different pitch by Despard) really gives different tracks a wholly changed (but ultimately similar) sound.... There is a certain simple nature to Despard’s music that will really resonate to anyone who is lucky enough to listen in. The fact that the vocals dictate the tone... instead of the obverse is one of those little bits of innovation that will really distinguish Despard from the rest of the lo-fi singer/songwriters current out trying to make a living." --James McQuiston, NeuFutur
"Alternative pop that’s catchy and has a Patti Smith feel, especially on tracks like 'The Well' and 'Firmament'.... Sounds a bit like a stripped down Velvet Underground." --J.R. Oliver, EarCandy
"Psychedelic guitar grooves and a voice akin to Marianne Faithful power this collection of original songs. Despard’s got a hippie street smart sharpness to her lyrics and a voice that threatens to careen off key but somehow keeps you on the road, with just an occasional swerve to miss any pedestrian dumb enough to be in her way. She plays an electric guitar on some cuts, run with enough reverb to make it sound like it’s connected to an old tube amp. On other songs, it’s a clear acoustic guitar, but whatever she chooses, it’s in a swirling mix of coolness." --Jamie Anderson, Indie-Music.com
"Despard's desperate wailing can captivate -- she's the kind of performer with cracked, hard heart to her voice that delivers perfectly her aches and pains." --Nikki Tranter, PopMatters
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