Album Details

• Artist: Anna Madorsky
• Album: Incantation
• Label: n/a
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: archelon on 2009-10-31

Anna Madorsky is the new (old?) name of LA-based singer/songwriter Rouse, and even though this is her sophomore release this 'debut' album is full of fresh new stuff. While Rouse's first offering to us was a dark, breakup-inspired album, with notes of electro and dirty house. 'Incantation' has a much lighter sound but just as many layers: Tori-Amos piano licks, atmospheric percussion and still a bit of the good synthy stuff we know from before. The sheer diversity of the sounds, all of them fully formed, gives the impression that Anna hasn't been resting up in her year-long break.

The songwriting is very well executed, approached mostly in the third person as Anna takes us through the daily life of... well, ordinary people having existential crises. Now on paper this might make you baulk, as nobody really wants to listen to some twit whining about how his wife doesn't appreciate him because she nags him about the hoovering, but it's not that kind of album. Despite the dodgy conceptual point of view, Madorsky draws us in with the story of 'Clinic' - somewhere the normal folk can go for a vent about things as diverse as gay rights and the recession. It's actually very interesting stuff, everyone has a story but it's not told with pity or sap but with dry humour and honesty.

Madorsky's voice serves as the glue holding it all together - her diction, pitch and delivery twist and turns around the music so readily it almost sounds like two different people singing. Highlights include 'Therapist's Office', a lovely bluesy, rocky song and 'Broken Artifacts' is dream-pink changing into something slinky. This lady comes highly recommended and doesn't disappoint.

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