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Live Review
by SashaS
8-5-2002
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| Tanya 'alt-siren' Donelly |
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Live: Tanya Donelly
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Tanya Donelly is the Queen of indie sound, thought and attraction
Tanya Donelly is a short, slim and sexy lady that can spin a mean guitar chords on songs to touch all parts of anyone’s being… The Boston-native has cut her creative teeth in few bands (Throwing Muses, Breeders, Belly) to arrive at the sound that resists bowing to any market demands, any public craving, any projections… Standing centre-stage and surrounded with four backing musicians (some shared with Frank Black she casually announces at one point) Donelly might look like a fragile ‘babe’ but it is deceptive, there is a strength hidden in this blonde’s body.
Effectively promoting her new album (first in five years due to fulfilling her maternal duty), ‘Beauty Sleep’, Donelly presents us complex arrangements that compliment stylistic mix – she appears so easy to mix’n’match – from countrified rockers to indie-pop to slow, hormone-awakening, tracks… For all her power performing of classy songs is opposed by shyness, she appears almost uncomfortable during very occasional utterances of gratitude. The show’s atmosphere is respectful, adoring-from-distance, rather than ‘going-fer-it’ in the stalls.
It’s not that there is a pull-back on full-throttle flow – ‘Ripples’ is a total punk-out – but it is songs that don’t really confirm to the form that truly sweep one inside this sonic world. There are dramatic moments, quiet passages, several tempo- and mood-changes within one song and one is able to resists this only if can’t get Kylie out-of-mind. New songs are seductively mixed with ‘oldies’, stretching back in time (don’t forget the Muses were formed in 1983), making us jump with joy upon recognizing intros to ‘Pretty Deep’ or ‘Seal My Fate’.
It’s always amazed me how more often ladies are experimentalists, unafraid to push the corners of whatever musical envelope is being touted at the time, glad to be outta-momentum and searching for something outside the present tense. No idea whether that is due to low (industrial) expectations, female artists being braver and more determined or there being a lack of role-models to emulate and thus lessen musical cloning opportunity. Sure, there is Alanis-kind of attempted multiplying but the real remain the deal.
There is a report that Throwing Muses have reformed (Donelly left the outfit in 1991) and already canned the comeback album. It would certainly be very nice to find out where they are five years down the road (since her half-sis Kirstin Hersh closed the book) but we hope that Donelly will not give up on her solo career. It is too precious, it is brill, it is soft, it is hard, it is like breathing unpolluted air…
SashaS
8-5-2002
Tanya Donelly’s album ‘Beauty Sleep’ is available now on 4AD
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