Dessa - Castor, The Twin (2011) VBR

Dessa - Castor, The Twin

Year 2011

Tracks
1. 551 4:00
2. Kites 3:59
3. Mineshaft 4:37
4. The Chaconne 4:36
5. Into the Spin 2:23
6. Dixon's Girl 3:17
7. The Crow 3:13
8. Alibi 3:39
9. Palace 3:12
10. Mineshaft 2 4:11
11. The Beekeeper 4:06

I was doubtful that an album consisting mostly of new versions of songs from Dessa's previous 2 records would be worth buying, but after hearing it, it's amazing! These were recorded with the musicians who had been backing her on the Badly Broken Code tour, and as a result it doesn't sound much like a hip hop record, and I mean that in a good way. Amazon's classifying it as opera among other things, which I think is strange, really it resembles the jazz recordings of Patricia Barber as much as anything, or maybe not so much the recordings as sitting next to the stage for a live set Monday nights at the Green Mill in Chicago. It has that kind of improvisational feel to it. The live musicians let the songs breathe a little bit more, allowing them to change up the tempo a bit here and there for emotional effect, which is much harder to do with a backing track assembled from samples. The new arrangements throw the focus more on her songwriting, giving the songs new emotional weight and impact. I was amazed that I could be so affected by them considering that I listened to the last one just about every day last summer. Not only is this a great album, it makes the previous one better by giving the listener a new perspective on these songs, especially "Dixon's Girl" which wasn't really my favorite track on Code but is a fantastic song as re-interpreted here. Definitely worth it even if you think you have these songs already.