Mark Sanders
Review: September, 2004
Scroll down for Tanya Donelly
Tanya Donelly
Whiskey Tango Ghosts
(4AD)
www.4ad.com
Oh Tanya -- where did you go after Belly, the Grammy-nominated
alternapop group you fronted in the mid-'90s, disbanded? Did
you retire to an ashram to smoke copious amounts of pot, far
from the caustic judgments of shameless music critics? What
about the rumors of you becoming a yak herder in Tibet? Any
truth to that?
For most fans of Belly (or Throwing Muses, or The Breeders,
or any other project she's formerly been involved with), Ms.
Donelly has been heaped onto the ever-growing number of carcasses
of decade-old pop stars now absent from the limelight. Thankfully,
Whiskey Tango Ghosts reassures us that the prolific
songstress has continued doing what she does best -- penning
impeccable lyrics and indelible melodies. Few of us grow up
and mellow out so publicly, but like Elvis Costello, Donelly
transcended the limits of her angry youth to make music better
suited to Sunday afternoon housecleaning than to Saturday
night troublemaking. Opening track "Divine Sweet Divide"
is Donelly at her folksiest, with vocals that invite comparisons
to Joni Mitchell and complemented by only a piano. Whiskey
Tango Ghost's title track is similarly fluid, adding muted
drum patterns, pedal steel guitar and sober lines like "You're
just a freckle away/From changing everything." Donelly's
ruminations are a reminder of what it was like to visit family
after a few months away at college -- you love her, you've
stuck with her for years -- but after being gone for so long,
she's better taken in small doses.
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