Paul Thomas Saunders
Good Women
January 26 2014 (Atlantic)
8/10
Words: Alison Mack
The 22-year-old Leeds (now Hove-based) musician begins the year with a new EP, the follow-up to his second and last 'Descartes Highlands' of 2012. The four-song work leads off with the title track - which is taken up further, with a near-on five-minute remix from Newcastle outfit Lanterns On The Lake, letting vocalist Hazel Wilde add a further dimension of lustre - on which he lays a falsetto seduction over the typical ethereal soundscape, largely piano focussed, that he has become best known for: the soaring delivery carrying the song on on an emotive high, over a mid-tempo ballad. 'Mutually Assured Destruction' follows with ponderous drums and percussion taking the lead over PTS's own muted, almost indefinable, delivery, as the melody swells over its trajectory like a a delicate bird with wings outspread. 'Under Atacama Stars', the last of the four, changes gear to a stripped down acoustic guitar-led track, almost Americana in style referencing perhaps the Chilean desert plains. Consider 'Good Women' as the hors d'oeuvres to the main course of the full-length debut studio album 'Beautiful Desolation' due this Spring. A sumptuous feast to partake of.
Just wonderful.
ReplyDelete