Album Notes

Connie Kim
Connie Kim

Très Mystérieux Records

Now here's a little record that just blew my mind. I say little because it's only got four songs on it but it's huge. Gargantuan really. No one makes records like this any more. I'm not sure anyone ever did.

Monumental melodic structures underpinned by exquisitely sculpted string arrangements all set aglow by the richest sexiest voice I think I've ever heard. It's all so goddamned beautiful you don't notice the darkness of the lyrics until it's too late.

"He's A Doll" seems an upbeat little pop confection but the bridge -

smooth each crease in her dress / twist each blade of / grass he's made of / huge dumb hands flail at the sky

-tells us he's no Ken doll. The protagonist is no Barbie, either.

when he left she'd spin/ on barbed wire for him/ handstands on barbed wire for him

Hmmm. What, as they say, is really going on? Even the lush textures of the opening song, "Everybody Loves You", belie its obsessive nature:

did you think you could hide / you're not great at disguise / you don't know how to lie

Lover? Stalker? Both? Again, hmmm.

"Miss Trapeze" is a woman afraid of heights who can't stay away from the tightrope:

in her sleep she points her toes/ she assumes her pose

Of course she's a little more complicated than that:

she was a waitress/ a tugboat/ a spaceship she'd/ orbit a mock sun when she really wanted /to soar above the world

Who writes like this? I hate the word, I really hate it, but what can you call it? It's quirky. There. I said it. "Untitled" is a perfectly crafted love song -spare and potent. But even this is a little twisted:

I'd jump off a train right into you / at least I'd die of curiosity

In today's music market, where most bands spend far more time choosing stylists than developing style and corporate whores are hailed as rebels as long as they have enough tattoos, making an album this original and this beautiful is an act that can best be described as punk as fuck. Of course it's not punk rock, its not even rock and its certainly not dance music. I'm not sure what it is but I hope there's a lot more of it to come.

Robert Trumbo
L A Weekly