It might just be a perception thing but music on good old fashioned vinyl seems to be an altogether more serious proposition than it could ever be in mp3 format. A gourmet meal rather than a fast food burger, if you like, and duly Alela Diane & Wild Divine’s self titled album is the full three courses and coffee.
With such gravitas much in my mind, Ms Diane’s album got me to thinking. I have a certain fondness for her music possessed, as it was, of that certain wistfulness that always suggests hope to me. With this album, however, there is something of a stylistic change towards a rather bleaker outlook on life. Not the usual bleakness beloved of the less sentimental practitioners in the Americana genre but that world weariness brought on by a life on the road beloved of (now ancient) practitioners of rock like Jackson Browne.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with a band to back her up this time round, Ms Diane steps up her vocal affectations and turns many of the songs into a kind of emotional battle between an allegorical realism and near laconic cynicism. There is a poetry to the words of “Elijah” even if you, as the listener, are not quite sure if the artistic inspiration for that particular song was an uplifting experience and likewise “The Wind”, being something of a eulogy to hope, seems an odd choice to put in the middle - even if it is at the end of a side on vinyl - of an album.
“Of Many Colors” could easily be taken as a slice of bleak Americana if it weren’t for the southern rock seasoning that creeps unexpectedly into the chorus. Again, thoughts of rock icons like Stevie Nicks came to mind as I listened with more evidence being found in the world weary words of “Desire”. Then again, I suppose that touring across the world as Alela Diane does must provide much cause for feeling for homesickness and self doubt.
The album ends on a marginally less downbeat note with the final words of the mournful “Rising Greatness” being “… there is good, there is still good”.
From the above, you might assume that listening to this album was hard work but it wasn’t. It is, however, an album with little in the way of immediate appeal. There’s no snappy sing alongs to catch your ear on the radio but it is, fortunately, a mature album that rewards your attentions should you decide to lavish them upon it. With that in mind, it is a satisfying choice for vinyl.
Though the pressing was average, sound quality was actually OK. Nothing in the runout grooves identified the pressing plant or the mastering engineer although the printed inner sleeve credits Greg Calibi. The album was packaged in a nice gatefold sleeve.