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The Wyrd Sisters Inside the Dreaming Released in 1994 5.1/10 Styles Folk Jazz-Folk Song Highlights One Hip Shaking Warrior If it Ain't Here |
Inside the Dreaming, the debut album by Canadian trio The Wyrd Sisters, opens with a very cool ambient backdrop. It's a great, atmospheric soundscape, which, unfortunately, sounds completely out of place once the group begin playing and singing their straightforward folk melodies. As this track develops, the ambience is gradually drowned out. Perplexingly enough, it (or anything like it) does not appear again for the remainder of the album. However, this feeling of confusion at the group's choice of musical direction is only the beginning. The first three tracks are all very by-the-numbers folk. There's little-to-no experimentation, or even variation in style or structure. The only high point comes partway through the opener when the trio first make use of their ability to have several different harmonies being sung simeltaniously, which they do seamlessly. Just when you're ready to dismiss this as a generic folk album, though, everything changes at the fourth track, "One Hip Shaking". For the first time, the group introduce some jazz elements into the mix. The tempo increases. There's brass and piano sections. The vocals take on a refreshing level of confrontational attitude. And it all sounds great. The multi-vocaled sections even reappear, and they perfectly complement the different style. The fact that everything on this track sounds exactly right leads to a great deal of frustration when, on the following track, they simply return to the gentle folk of before. The jazz elements return on occasion, and then everything improves. Sometimes they don't even need to be through actual jazz music. As soon as the band increases the tempo, applies some boppy bass and extra intsrumetation and starts to sing a little less passively, the songs just sound better. Unfortunately, only 2 or 3 more tracks go in this direction, making the album annoyingly uneven. The one and only time on the album where the more gentle style actually works is on "Warrior." Here, all the instrumentation is dropped, and all that's left are the three voices, once again making perfect use of that overlapping, multi-vocaled style. "One Hip Shaking" and the fantastic "If it Ain't Here," suggest that The Wyrd Sisters could make a near-perfect sprawling, multi-vocaled, jazz-folk record. But it seems they don't want to, so you're stuck with Inside the Dreaming instead. |