Sacremento's Julie Ann Baenziger is, at the tender age of 25, a remarkably accomplished singer-songwriter, who has squeezed just about everything onto her debut album, Songs For The Ravens, filling it with melancholy ambience and lush orchestration. The term 'folk' is often misused these days - usually wrongly linked to anything with a voice and acoustic guitar or banjo - but Sidepain begins with a rustic, semi-a capella feel before exploding into a charming song of stumbling love.
With a country lilt to the guitars, Jules' wonderfully evocative voice and naïve lyrics ("Where did all the good men go/drinkin' all the whiskey I done"), the spirited melody thrives upon its lively, driving rhythm, as spontaneous triumphant mid-song shouts attest. The song is satisfyingly joyful and uplifting in an album whose cuts hover, emotionally, around tentatively happy. It does seem cruel and wrong to rip this from the album though, as it only hints at the multi-instrumental diversity being ploughed into the record's 11 tracks. From glitch-ridden mood pieces to soaring, churning guitar ensembles, eclecticism is evident without ever disrupting the atmosphere and flow of her debut. Nonetheless, even orphaned from its context, Sidepain is significantly seductive.
Words: Brad Barrett
4:46 PM | 11/04/2011
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