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W-S Burn, Candy Striper
The tape hisses, a guitar strikes one note at a time like a funeral dirge, and then her dark melody begins. In the background you can hear a distant church bell ring three times and it's not some post production trick. The first track on W-S Burn's Candy Striper is pure songwriting ecstasy, undiluted by any studio decisions, ideal for late night listening and downtime. The second track, "Spring Comes" allows vocalist Pixie to really soar out over Steve's repeating patterns. I can not wait to see this stuff happen live. Listen to WS-Burn on our compilation. Since every track on this record is really worth examining and writing about, I'm going to have to skip a few to keep this concise. On track ten, Pixie sings an unaccompained song that begins, "I fell for a street boy today," and later, "I won't let you have me in the alleyway where we know Dolores and Tom did it yesterday." The eleventh and final song is also unaccompanied, she sings, "Hand me the remote control so I can let my hopes down gently." But it's the fourth track, "Mother," that remains my favorite W-S Burn song of the three albums they were kind enough to send me. Part of its brilliance is the fact that Pixie sings an unaccompanied introduction for a minute fifteen seconds before Steve's guitar joins her, pitch-perfect, and together their ballad winds along, "I don't want to live in a place that stares me down," and later, "you just know when something is over." Such sadness there, but somehow it's made sublime with melodies so gorgeous. W-S Burn is quickly becoming one of my favorite music projects in the world today, and I wish them the best of luck in this tough world. You can find one of their recordings on the Foxglove label, Two Dreams Tucked in Tight. Also visit Puzzling Music for a bunch of their songs in mp3 format. * * * |
