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CD: "Candy Coated" - Buffalo Queen Records (self-release)

SOLID POP FROM AN ABSTRACT BAND

Question: Since abstractions, by definition, don't have physical qualities, how can truth be violet?

Answer: it can when it's music, which is, after all, a pretty abstract language. Melodies, harmonies and rhythms, with or without words, have a mysterious power to make us feel deep emotions.

Maybe science will never fully explain art. But Victoria Crago - along with her primary writing partner, Paul Crane; her producer, Hoboken perennial James Mastro; and a batch of fine musicians - have created an album of deceptively simple tunes that pull some satisfyingly complex emotional strings. It's not music that hits you over the head, but the best of it can transport you someplace quite beautiful.

Crago's warm voice is perfect for the well-crafted pop tunes that populate the brightly colored landscape of Violet Truth's debut album, Candy Coated. The opening songs, "Waterproof" and the harmony-heavy "I Could Cry" (which wouldn't be out of place in an Antigone Rising set) both display VT's talent for juxtaposing sunny, boppy tunes with sad, sometimes tragic lyrics.

Writing directly from the heart is a dangerous business, fostering a tendency to focus on honest simplicity at the expense of art. Crago's lyrics sometimes get too prosaic and veer into cliche. A lyricist with the skill to write

     I saw a man among the crowd
     As I have always done
     I picked him out as my reward
     And named him as the one
     I asked not his intention
     For I barely knew my own

is just being lazy writing lines like

     I guess you could say I'm feeling insecure
     I know you think we gave it the college try

Fortunately those itchy moments are few.

The album's ballads and softer songs, with melodies sometimes reminiscent of Elvis Costello, feature some of VT's best writing. I do have a few quibbles with some of the arrangements. "Another Lonely Girl" is a fine song whose chorus is marred by a robotic-sounding snare which, while probably meant to liven up the arrangement, saps the song's energy by interrupting the flow of an otherwise very smooth composition. And the double-time feel in the chorus of "Shelter," a weaker song to start with, calls too much attention to itself, again detracting from the song.

However, the production and arrangement choices on Candy Coated more often enhance the songs, as with the Donovan-esque psychedelia that opens "Minnesota" and the organ-and-acoustic-guitar textures that drive "Novice," a 6/8 ballad that shows Crago at her lyrical best:

     I'm a novice
     I'm your lover
     I am nothing to you but in my head
     I'm your candy
     I'm your rainy day
     You're my hunger
     You are what keeps me fed

"Truly," which closes the album, is another gem of quiet simplicity.

Band website: www.violettruth.com

EP: "Dig Deep Down" - self-release

COOL LOVE

Cool and austere like lemon ice, yet warm and rich like melted chocolate: yes, it's another contradiction brought to you courtesy of the mysteries of music.

Laura Stark was raised in Texas but has lived in London for nearly a decade. It's a story that tempts one to try to peg the elements of her style on influences of place. But I prefer to take the music on its own terms.

Stark's 6-track EP Dig Deep Down is about love and passion, but it's love observed in profile rather than head on:

     Sometimes it's good to forget
     Everything about you is amazing

and passion cautiously avoided:

     You're standing right behind me
     I don't even need to turn around to know
     I feel your energy...
     You know me and I know you
     And we both know better

These recordings are lush but simple, the style modern but timeless, rootsy but fresh, like a gourmet meal prepared from humble, earthy ingredients. Stark has absolute control over her torchy alto. (It's not via studio tricks, either: I recently had the opportunity to hear Stark live.) Her delivery is captivating, with a touch of huskiness in her exquisite lower register. Bluesy melodies, delicate guitar hooks and (courtesy of collaborator Neil Conti) hypnotic, tasteful but modernistic drums and percussion add up to a carefully produced soundscape that strikes a fine balance between easy warmheartedness and immaculate clarity, especially in "Sometimes," "Volatile" and the title song.

Stark's lyrics are masterfully concise, notably in "Dig Deep Down," which appears on the EP in two different arrangements. (I prefer the one with the percussion to the one with the Byrdsian harmonies, but the song's a treasure either way.)

     Dig deep down
     Save my soul
     Fighting hard
     All I know
     Forgive what I did
     Forgive what I'm doing

Without needing to know exactly what's going on here, we sense the desperation and the tragedy, and that's exactly enough.

"Shaken" is a less weighty but still pleasing ballad. The weak link on this EP is "Fly Away," an airy throwaway with more mood than meat which (according to the liner notes) was chosen for a Swiss Air TV campaign. Sounds about right.

More power to Laura Stark, a singer-songwriter who can as easily supply the music for an airline commercial as she can pen a soundtrack to the pensive human heart. Let's hope for a full-length album.

Artist website: stage.vitaminic.com/stark2