I love music, know a lot about it, seldom write about it, but I'm inspired my good-buddy Darien Brahms (self-styled Tomboy Fatale) up in Portland, Maine who releases her fourth solo CD (appropriately titled Number Four) on Saturday, September 6, at that city's SPACE Gallery.
Darien's done a lot of things: musically those include jazz, country, folk, rock, and protest. She also paints -- woodwork. Seriously, that's her day job.
Anyway, Darien is a modest sort, who doesn't know (or won't acknowledge) the extent of her own talents. Her latest self-produced CD was a long learning experience for her in terms of production technology. She claims she learned a lot, and she's right about that. This is a richly produced and well engineered (she did both) album that seldom, if ever, overplays the studio gimmicks.
Number Four, which was five years in the making is not one of those albums where once you've heard the "good song," you've heard them all. I'd call every song on this thing "good," and more to the point, different from the rest. Sort of a sampler of musical styles covering pop to hip-hop to rock to country with no one example being trapped purely in it's signature genre.
You can test-drive some of this at Brahms's MySpace page. The current pick for hit single seems to be "Sweet Little Darling," which is indeed infectious -- a little old-school soul, a touch of bubblegum, and references to Memphis horns. All in all difficult to get out of your head. But the harder, more challenging cuts are even more rewarding, especially, "I'm So Afraid," which effectively turns fear into kind of scary power. And "Too Late for Whitey" doesn't so much break new ground as invent it vis a vis Brahms's past efforts.
Though Brahms as toured around and opened for big-name acts and such, she tends to stick pretty close to Casco Bay these days. This album could (and to my mind should) change that.
And if you don't believe me, here's what long-time Phoenix music writer Brett Milano said about the album.
"What a voice Darien Brahms has-warm and earthy and full of deep blue intrigue; you hear it once and want to learn any secrets she's telling. You wouldn't want to waste this voice on mundane songs, and that's not the kind she writes: Whether exploring the spiritual, the sensual or the grey areas in between, she doesn't shy away from the messy emotional territory where you gain the greatest insights and have the most fun. While she'll always be a rocker at heart, her fourth album adds some idiosyncratic touches of blues, lounge pop, even hip-hop. It's all smart and adventurous, with a few of the sharpest hooks I've heard this year."
-Brett Milano, author of The Sound of Our Town -- a History of Boston Rock and Roll
You might also want to read Sam Pfeifle's Portland Phoenix review of Number Four.
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