Catchy, Haunting, Artsy Rock from the Whispering Tree

by delarue

Nostalgic childhood memories – and songs about them – can never be trusted. As Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz once pointedly asked, who would ever want to be young again? Find someone who claims to have been happy as a kid and chances are they’re A) lying, B) extremely lucky, C) brain-dead, or D) any combination thereof. Dark New York folk-rock band the Whispering Tree’s first album Go Call the Captain worked a gothic Americana vein; their new album The Escape reflects on growing up over a backdrop of artsy new wave-influenced rock. On all but one of the songs, frontwoman/pianist Eleanor Kleiner’s lyrics take the cynical, gloomy view that just about anywhere would be better than here. Her cool, confident, resonant voice sails over terse, elegantly swaying guitar and piano, fueled by longing and angst.

The opening track, Where Have You Gone is addressed to a missing person who could either be on the lam or not – which amps up the mystery. When it comes time for a big solo, it’s on a synthesizer, a brave and surprisingly effective touch. The second track, Remember Waiting starts quiet and pensive and then goes doublespeed with an anxious new wave pulse. Kleiner paints a vivid portrait of an alienated school kid: “All the other players in the picture standing on the periphery and the space between what I am and what I’m not, the big thick line is getting thinner and I remember waiting…for something to get me out of here.”

No Love works a swinging noir cabaret vein: it’s not clear whether it’s an escape anthem or a suicide song. Better Off implores someone to get out while they can: “There is no home for you here, better off leaving – just some dusty bones and an ancient wound that won’t stop bleeding.” The album ends surprisingly with Pink House, a wistful memory of days when “we played outside until the sun lay low and the shadows grew and there was nothing  holding us down.” Implying, maybe, that a child’s imagination gets crushed by everything that comes after. Which makes this album so potentially appealing to just about everybody. There’s also a cover of a famous showtune here that has so much ugly baggage that even the great Dave Brubeck couldn’t rescue it. The Whispering Tree kick off their southern tour in just a couple of days on June 18; the whole schedule is here.