The first thing you realize when you turn up to Sweet Shadows is the very first thing you have contact with: the cover. That’s okay, it’s just a beautiful picture… Out of its package, it’s time to play it.
I believe the first track, Broken Bridge, is the most representative song on the album − and, because of that, perfect to open this opus. The very first 77 seconds are a kind of synthesis of what is gonna come around the 11 tracks. The great sensibility represented by the piano; the darkish and urban side of downbeat in contrast with the exuberant brightness come from Natalie’s vocals; a voice that for being so amazing even make us believe in the truth of what is being pronounced − and all of a sudden I find myself really pondering and accepting: all my rooms are filled with musty dust, time has taken all that I possess, I never know if to laugh or to scream, to hate or to believe…
Shattered, the second track, is magnificent; a bit more aggressive than the previous one, but still sweet, maybe darkish maybe nostalgic; strings, loops, samples, self style, there’s always room for something else in Daughter Darling’s creativity.
It follows up Let Me Speak. Now it’s time to abandon the sweetness and fragility for a while. The shade in here is more aggressive, going through a beautiful work on industrial beats and scratchings.
Like a necessary interruption on the electronics, it’s time to pay attention to Absconding. Under the sound of the piano and the cello, Natalie extirpates any shadow of doubt about her talent, making clear she is, for sure, one of the best singers that trip-hop scene has ever seen. But… this track seems too short…, too short for the ears, that can’t stop complaining when she sings the last words... Not a big deal, Mermaid is on the corner.
Mermaid is one of the best tracks I have ever heard (not just subjectively, but also objectively speaking). Damn rich, deep, embodying nature sounds and what to me tunes like animal gruntings, as well as graceful programming productions; plain beats that are developed till an hypnotic atmosphere, mixing breakbeat influences.
From the sounds of nature, Sad and Lonely fades in. Cool scratchings going along with the, one more time and never enough to say, great vocals; about the 50th second Natalie will even scare unwarned people, making them shudder: the energy from her almost-scream is a climax moment indeed.
Track number 7 is Things Untold; laconic beats, strings, more scratchings… Do you see beauty or do you see tears? I see the beauty reflected in the mirror of the tears... Voodoo Games comes up, a darker track; clank beats, heavy bass lines. You Won’t See Me is the next one, announcing the the proximity of the end with its cello sounds.
Thus it comes Sweet Shadows, beginning the end. This is an hypnotic track, mysterious, obscure, a trip-hop on its plenitude. The dark shades go along on Dust in the Wind, a Kansa’s song cover, reverberating like a nostalgic virtuousism. It sounds nostalgic actually, either because of itself or due to the implicit meaning, this is the last track (or even both). Indeed, the album could last many hours else and I wouldn’t complain at all, but… I close my eyes only for a moment and the moment's gone…
(Ah, of course, the art-cover again; after all, it was not just a cool picture; actually it is part of the album, just like if every single song was trying to describe a piece of that simple, nebulous and beautiful horizon; the range of perception is not totally absorbed by the reasoning power… The way a friend of mine, Eldar, would quote Daughter Darling, don’t you feel so sad you know it can’t be that bad? )
It was just a brief report about Sweet Shadows. I really didn’t intend to dissect it, this is something that concerns every listener to do. Anyway, what to say about the album after all? I personally would not name it like that; I’d name it as the Sweetest Shadows, or Greatest Shadows. It’s actually one of the most beautiful trip-hop albums I have ever heard, since I started listening to trip-hop every day, a decade ago. As I’ve announced before somewhere else, I dedicate a special room for this CD on my record collection, a space reserved just for essential albums, beside pearls like Dummy (Portishead), Blue Lines (Massive Attack), Who Can You Trust (Morcheeba) and Background Door (U-topia). Sweet Shadows is surely a masterpiece, a trip-hop that demonstrates the great sensibility of those behind it: Daughter Darling. There’s creativity, there’s poetry and over all there’s trip-hop − overflowing. Are the skies the limit? It was hard to believe one could debut on the scene with that power, at least it’s not easy to debut that way; and exactly because of that, there’s now no reason to doubt they can be even better. The future will tell us. Yup, the future: Daughter Darling is the accurate answer to those who dare to label trip-hop as 90ies music; a beautiful answer to those who dare to say that trip-hop is something falling into decadence, as I have heard too many times. Yup Ladies and Gentlemen, trip-hop is alive and shouting out loud…
(I just wonder: when will the next album come up?; I’m looking forward it since now)
album: sweet shadows
artist: daughter darling
year: 2003
label: plain jane records
review by tripofagia
august, 2003