Letting Go Of Strings - Gina Noell
Rock Kitten Records, 2003
Originally published December 25, 2003
by Jedd Beaudoin, F5witchita E-Zine
jbeaudoin@f5wichita.com
What if David Bowie had decided to say hang it all and become and woman? Chance [+]Letting Go Of Strings - Gina Noell
Rock Kitten Records, 2003
Originally published December 25, 2003
by Jedd Beaudoin, F5witchita E-Zine
jbeaudoin@f5wichita.com
What if David Bowie had decided to say hang it all and become and woman? Chances are he might have sounded something like Gina Noell, whose Letting Go Of Strings proves extraordinarily similar to some of the Thin White Duke's post 1980 material. Gina Noell, is, if nothing else a singer who can balance the world of crooning with the world of rocking, just like ol' Ziggy hisself. It's uncanny. Witness "3-65" (didn't Bowie have a thing for songs with numbers in their titles?), a track that could have easily wound up on, say, Let's Dance or even Tonight. That is, of course, if he were a woman. And if he were Gina Noell. But he's him and she's her and this is, it turns out, a fine album without all that confusing stuff going on.
Noell dresses many of these songs up in wonderfully fashionable clothes, building them like high-security skyscrapers, wrapping them in sexy clothes that tease but never reveal too much. Witness "Perfect," an almost-eerily seductive piece that imagines a positively upbeat Portishead or a clinically depressed blues belter sitting in with ol' David Jones himself.
But comparisons to other artists and appreciations of studio craft aside, the fact is that this record wouldn't work were it not for a series of strong songs, which we get with "Perfect," "Never Forever" and "Addicted" (imagine Annie Lennox starting out today), three that come in a sequence that leaves the listener reeling. Elsewhere, "Going On" proves simply lovely, while "Black Fog" will render the listener simply dumb.
That said, Letting Go Of Strings isn't perfect. There are one or two tracks ("Heat" mostly) that don't quite hit the mark with the same passion as the others mentioned here, but, for the most part, this serves as a fine introduction to this songstress. Now, for our next trick, let's get Noell together with Reeves Gabrels, shall we?
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The first solo effort by Gina Noëll is aptly named, as it signals a long-overdue introduction to her unique songwriting, now uncluttered by the ghosts of guitarists past. Like an imp
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