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SHRUG  Rhea Valentine
 MORE REVIEWS CAKE "This CD is rife with introspection, gloom pop from a veteran of the Minneapolis music scene. Rhea Valentine (the lead singer) ahs a versatile voice and is equally adroit at evoking emotion through a sing-songish whisper (in the opening track "Dirty Tricks") to a carnal overdrive in "Blood and Water". The band, as a whole, is tight and unrelenting in providing a sonic landscape in which Rhea's candid, confessional lyrics dwell. These tracks are more like poetry within a musical context. By and large, the lyrical content is the focal point with imagery that is passionate and crisp in metaphor and simile, as the first lines of "Beast" exhibit: "Words are spilling through my lips/ like broken teeth and poker chips." I have to admit that after my first ambient listening, I just didn't get it. Then upon closer inspection, I discovered that this is the type of music that can't just be listened to, it must be heard. The whole album is an emotional trip from point A to point B. ---It's a concept album. Rhea is somewhat of a Sylvia Plath of rock/pop in a healthy way (sans the "oven trick", of course)." "The debut release from local artist Rhea Valentine begs comparisons to PJ Harvey -- but to stop there would be unjust. Both acts have soulful, world-weary vocals and aching female rage and melancholy. And like PJ, Rhea Valentine is the band name as well as the alias of its singer and mastermind (Wendy Lewis). The music on Shrug is amazing all by itself. The recording is low-budget, improvisational and unpracticed, and the backup band is adept. The free-fall guitar acrobatics of Minneapolis vet Terry Eason suggest an art-rock combo led by a twisted Robert Fripp. Sometimes the rhythm section is just too busy, but that's hardly a discredit to the talents of drummer David King and bassist Pete Linman. Shrug is an eclectic mix of moods, from the softness of "Dirty Tricks" to the distorted noise of "Blood and Water" and the experimental "Walking Stick". The Minnesota Daily/Uof M Lewis transcends her folk-music roots to ground Rhea Valentine in otherworldly catharsis. "What is the point of all this yearning?" she asks sweetly at the album's fore; 47 heart-wrenching minutes later, the answer is: "All the raging in the world/Will not change my mind." The Squealer "Imagine taking PJ Harvey's attitude, Suzanne Vega's style, tossing in a little Throwing Muses and leaving it alone in a hot recording studio to ferment. Shrug sweats power. Valentine displays a lyrical acumen rarely seen, and her choice of musicians to accompany her is brilliant. If the talent that was put into this album were distributed evenly among all the musicians in the Midwest, we would all die from going to too many crowded shows in smoky bars. The music is very difficult to describe and impossible to categorize. It's kind of jazzy, sultry, poetic and pyrogenic. In fifteen years, this album will be a classic and you can say that you were there. Buy it |
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