RETROSPECTVE: Emiliana Torrini "Fisherman's Woman"

Emiliana Torrini "Fisherman's Woman" (2005)
download link
rs / mp3 / 128kbps / 36mb

Label: Rough Trade
Producer: Dan Carey & Emiliana Torrini
Tracks: 12 (check: Amazon)


ok, just to be a bit left of the middle from the obvious references and on-the-fence reviews you'd get from your usual amazon.com or other music blog sites about this female individual named Emiliana Torrini, i have to say she is a genius. well, i might as well since everybody these days is using that term as much as starbucks make decaf latte daily.

sitting on a dangerous plateau held up between "angelic" and "sex", it works well as a style for Emiliana. i've read somewhere that claimed she's only the poor man's bjork. grow up, Bjork would kill to have Emiliana's sane complexity. This is Jose Gonzales on estrogens we're talking about here. The image Ani Difranco (and Sia?) probably inspired but never managed to pull off themselves. kylie minogue definitely had to thank her for penning UK's #1 (and THE sex soundtrack of the decade) "slow".

the production seems to be playing *around* on Emiliana's distinct voice on this record, using it as a focal point. which can quite be risky, since that usually comes with full on audience concentration on the lyrics (watch out massive attack, sigur ros!) BUT i have to say although the topics are not exactly my cup of tea, i quite enjoyed it - pardon me for my lack of folk-pop knowledge, radio raped me and i'm rather scarred. production values on this one lies almost between timeless but quite fortunately, accidentally. but then again, people could argue it's probably the only way to record Ms. Torrini and acoustic guitars on record.

i'm listening to this now as i write, i just have to say that Emiliana shines well on the more melodic tracks on this record, where it almost opens up to a sugary world of addictive numbness.

with this record, i continue my phase of charmingly lazy female vocalists' records. ive been through a few these days (thanks to 3 friends of mine) which have got me to conclude that, there are a two types of female vocalists in this world: female vocalists who sing, and female vocalists who sing like angels.