Label: 4AD Format: CD
I‘d heard of, but not heard, HNIA and that’s my loss. Still, you can’t be expected to hear everything, can you ? So this turned out to be one of those almost magical and rare recordings that upsets your expectations and surprises you in the best possible ways. It isn’t ground-breaking but it does combine certain musical elements in a refreshing way. I’m a fan.
Between them, singer Lovetta Pippen , guitarist/keyboardist Warn Defever and their chosen musicians have assembled a seductive, addictive selection of songs. They are soulful but delivered without the usual affectations and vocal somersaults of some well known divas and they are all the better for that. Her distinctive voice ,moves from virtually breathless on “Last Night” to the sultry warnings of “Crawlin’” – “You got a lotta crawlin’ to do”. This track also features some smoothly curvaceous sax. Also effectively is the double-tracking of her voice showcased against restrained acoustic guitar and piano on “Devil’s Night”.
They deliver a range of styles, from the atmospheric electric piano and violin on “I Been Good Up Till Now”, into classic Funk on “Someday My Prince Will Come” with its riffing saxes and congas on to a great guitar lick that runs through “I Have Special Powers”. The latter is a special delight for those of us who still like fruity, sustained electric guitar noises. The spare rhythms, slinky guitar and vocals of “I Can See A Little Of Myself In Her” create a subtly haunting menace that you could probably still dance to, if you wanted to. And the ghost of Hendrix manifests itself in both the song and guitar on “Storm” before breathy tenor sax and acoustic guitar combine for the intro to Train . There are some light touches of piano and more of those beguiling, yearning vocals : “All the desire in the world could not catch that train”.
Had I seen this in a rack I might not have looked at it twice – the name always makes me think of something Gothic/Death Metal and ugly, for a start. Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong and I was wrong about that, wasn’t I ?
-Paul Donnelly-
