St. Paul Pioneer Press
Fri, May. 31, 2002

Redstart, "One" (Redstart):
By Jim Walsh

This Wendy Lewis-led family affair (brother Michael plays bass and Casio piano; father Greg plays horns) is another beguiling chapter in the art-over-all-else career of the former Rhea Valentine and Mary Nail singer. This time, Wendy's buttery vocals and bloody poems feel as free-form as the instrumentation, making for an ensemble piece that uses syllables and words as notes and cues and leaves the dot-connecting to the listener.

Over the course of five songs, images of restless in-flight souls wrestle with their lots in life (the set's highlight is the sprawling, to-the-bone "Feathers and Keys"), so much so that you can almost hear the subjects' metamorphosis taking place right before your ears. Only problem is, "One" sounds like just the beginning for Redstart, so when the freaky EP-closer "Jars" concludes, the silence is as unsettling as the journeys that come before it.

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