By Geoff Topley
How can you not be drawn to an artist with the name Chelsea Wolfe? When I first entered the wonderland of the Sargent House Bandcamp page her name shone out like a beacon of light. An analogy that is entirely at odds with the Sacramento singer's music and appearance. Her fourth album Pain Is Beauty has taken a very long time to grace my stereo, a combination of wanting to hear it up close and personal, and tardy CD distributors. All those tweets hailing her new work added to my pain of not being able to partake of further discussion, but the wait was worth it.
Chelsea recently drew a fitting and poignant end to one of Belfast's best loved gig venues, Auntie Annie's bar. A small secluded venue bedecked in fairy lights, I'm sure it was a very memorable evening, unfortunately I didn't get to attend. The Chelsea Wolfe live experience is a fairly rocking affair, last album Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs given a helping hand by an able backing band and some additional amplification. I'd be very curious to hear how this album will be performed as it's an unexpected collective of slippery electronica tinged with elements of folk and gothic disco? I promised myself I would do this review without using the adjectives; haunting, icy, gothic, beautiful, spooky or doomy, but they're all so apt to describe Chelsea's sound.
The album begins with 'Feral Love', a chillingly intoned introduction where sparse keyboards intermingle with helicopter blade percussion. A simple and repeated vocal melody creates tension and sets the mood for the rest of the album. Introductions out of the way, 'We Hit A Wall' is so striking with how it begins, Chelsea has a unique way of pronouncing, it's as if she manages to add an extra syllable to her words. Thumping toms and a muscular guitar riff don't alter much throughout, save for some lovely strings, the repeated vocal melody is (again) simplistic but so full of passion and emotion.
By now we've established that this is a much different sounding affair to her last album, 'House of Metal' really emphasises this. The song revolves around a two-note bass throb, squelching horn pumps, twinkling keys and sexy strings that sway around an icy echoed vocal, a real danger permeating through Chelsea's tones. The most outlandish track comes in the form of 'The Warden', which sounds like a gothic mash-up of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love', Blondie's 'Atomic' and a very cool James Bond theme. The vocal melody in the chorus (of sorts) is astonishing, pure Liz Fraser in delivery and utterly beguiling. The only venture into rockier territory is 'Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter', a twangy guitar riff and gorgeous "ooooh, who's that girl?" chorus making it probably the most accessible song on the album.
I found a slight dip in terms of actual song enjoyment (not necessarily the quality) in the middle of the album, 'Sick', 'Kings' and 'Reins' offering less moments of intrigue. Then there's an immense upturn with 'Ancestors, the Ancients', which oscillates along with an alarm-ing keyboard line, thumping toms and echoed vocals reminiscent of The Knife, before they went loopy.
On her last album, Chelsea gave us one of my all-time favourite songs in the amazing 'Flatlands'. She matches that song here with the frankly incredible 'They'll Clap When You're Gone'. Surely one of the most impassioned and beautiful vocal turns you will ever hear, this track reminds me so much of the Rebekah Del Rio cover of Orbison's 'Crying' which appeared on the Mulholland Falls soundtrack. The track is barely there musically, just a lowly acoustic strum, at times this falters to almost silence while Chelsea sings. You feel your heart beating out of your chest, it is simply stunning.
The penultimate track is 'The Waves Have Come', a sprawling 8-minute epic that swells with piano and strings, giving Chelsea the chance to evolve the cyclical vocal melody into something more expansive. The waves of sound created inspiring the song title perhaps. Closing track 'Lone' is a recall to the last album, a quiet acoustic song, I would liken it to the song you hear while the credits role on a movie, after the main theme has ended.
As it stands, Chelsea Wolfe is one of those artists to be treasured, a sublime talent who has an extraordinary voice. A true artist of integrity, yet to be discovered by the undeserving masses. She's in very good hands, her label Sargent House exemplify everything that is right with music management and artistic control. For those of us who have heard her music, our lives are enriched in ways words cannot describe. Thank you Chelsea.
