I like the concept of individuality and I especially like that concept in the context of music. Too many musicians take the easy way out and concentrate on their plastic persona rather than content so it was rather invigorating to point my ever critical ears at Vilma Flood and her album “Moodswinger”.
It might seem old fashioned to call the songs on this album, and the artiste who sings them, as organic yet it is nothing less than true to do so. Vilma Flood’s voice has the stamp of individuality on it and, with her vocal style alternating between the laconic and the quirky, it becomes difficult to place her in a marketing pigeonhole. Now, that’s a good thing in my book and, when you add in the reverb laden poetry and folk singer spirituality that she uses to decorate the words of her songs, it is no surprise that the end result seems so naturalistic, unforced and, let’s admit it now, enchanting.
Let’s consider a few of the songs. The title song “Moodswinger” is immersed in maturity and introspection yet still manages to be accessible even to a knuckle dragger like me while “Green Eyed Moron” offers a delightfully twsited take on the roots festival friendly blues sound. As for “People Song”, this song nudges old time country style harmonies gently and duly edges them into the modern day folk perspective.
There was a time – so I am told – when the music business actually treated music seriously. Vilma Flood deserves to be taken seriously and “Moodswinger” is the kind of album that should be released on vinyl as I would not be surprised to find that both current and vintage music addicts will find it addictive.