Label: 4ad Records / Wb Us
Released: Feb 19, 2002 |
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She may have never been immortalized in song as the pinnacle of cool like former bandmate Kim Deal, but Tanya Donelly has nonetheless played as crucial a role in alt-history. Starting alongside step-sister Kristin Hersh in the mid-eighties with Throwing Muses, Donelly has been an important but quite often overlooked figure in alternative rock, also spending time in the Breeders before stepping to the forefront in Belly. Belly’s debut album, Star, was one of the best and most underrated albums of the 90s, and the high point of Donelly’s career. With more than a decade of music under her belt, it is not that surprising that Donelly has as of late drifted into obscurity. Giving only a slight attempt at a solo career after Belly’s demise, with 1997’s Love Songs For Underdogs, Donelly has in recent years opted for motherhood over music, which would have been a fitting finish if not for her new album. For Beautysleep, Donelly returns to the label she started with, 4AD, where as a Muse in 1985 she was part the first American band to be signed to the well-respected British label, paving the way for The Pixies and others.
Anyone expecting a dead horse, Lou Reed-like solo retread from Donelly should be pleasantly surprised with Beautysleep. Although some of the tracks do drift towards adult-contemporary moderate rock, where all musicians seem to go to die, overall the album is an impressively-textured, moody collection of well-written songs. While the songs on the album lack the instant pleasure of Star singles "Feed the Tree" and "Gepetto", or the angular quirkiness of that album’s other tracks, many of the songs are nearly equal in their more subtle, straight-forward way. The album is reminiscent of Aimee Mann’s Bachelor # 2 or Kristin Hersh’s last album, Sunny Border Blue, a little overproduced but nicely unsurprising and detached from current trends. Highlights include the spectral torch song "life is but a dream" and the entrancing duet with late Morphine/Treat Her Right frontman Mark Sandman, which is worth the price itself.
Overall, Beautysleep is a stark yet thoroughly enjoyable postscript from an immense but disregarded talent.
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