Grace Cummings

April 23, 2024 12:04 PM

So I was out yesterday and listening to the NPR show World Cafe, as I do if/when I'm out at that time, and the host starts going on and on about the voice of the featured artist that day, about how stunning it is, and I'm thinking, come on, don't oversell it. They weren't overselling it.

Her voice may not be to everyone's taste; a reviewer on Pitchfork said that her latest album, Ramona, is "an album that has the dynamic range and limited application of a strong flashlight." (I think that they're wrong.)

From Storm Queen:

Heaven

Fly a Kite

From Ramona:

Something Goin' Round

Married To the War

posted by Halloween Jack (12 comments total)

got some Alison Moyet in there too
posted by marcpski at 12:10 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

She's pretty amazing live.

Ramona is a good album I think, but I do reckon Storm Queen is better, which seems to be a common, though not universal, opinion.
posted by deadwax at 2:02 PM on April 23

I'm watching the video for Heaven and it's amazing. Its going on my Aldous Harding playlist - right next to Horizon.
posted by zenon at 2:19 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

I kind of agree with that Pitchfork review. She has a great voice, but the arrangements are... fine? Nothing is bad, and it's not a bad album, it's just missing some spark of a soul in it. I wanted some more dynamic range in the music. I wound up tuning out about halfway through.

That said, I quite liked Storm Queen. I feel it's a better showcase of her voice. It was a good recommendation.

Some of my own recommendations that popped into my head while listening:

Lady Blackbird - "Collage"
And if you dig that, this concert video is pretty great.

Storm Large - "I've Got You Under My Skin"
From this album.

And I never get tired of Drag by kd lang
posted by mrphancy at 3:13 PM on April 23 [4 favorites]

I kind of agree with that Pitchfork review. She has a great voice, but the arrangements are... fine? Nothing is bad, and it's not a bad album, it's just missing some spark of a soul in it.

It does make you wish someone would sneak the vocal track out of the studio and find some musicians who are able to build the right sort of firepit for that fire of a voice.
posted by clawsoon at 7:49 PM on April 23 [3 favorites]

I've found a couple of live gigs, and I'd say the music fits her voice better when the guitar has some distortion on it.
posted by clawsoon at 8:30 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Holy cow. Never heard of her before, but I watched the video for “Heaven” and her voice, facial expressions and movements are mesmerizing.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:42 AM on April 24

Her voice is really interesting. At my first listen (watching the "Heaven" video) it sounded masculine and felt like she was lipsynching to a man singing. But then the voice got to me and it felt like I mentally shifted and it all clicked and now the voice is just ... hers.

Lovely stuff.

Is there any way to hear the World Café program linked above? The link on the site just goes to the World Café page with the playlist, but I can't find a link to hear it.
posted by chavenet at 1:27 AM on April 24

I started off by watching the video for "Heaven" and the fact that she's obviously lip-synching in the video just created this cognitive dissonance where the voice did not match the person at all. I had to go find the live videos that clawsoon mentions before I could reconcile that at all, and it still hasn't completely resolved in my brain. Great voice, either way.
posted by jferg at 7:37 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Sorry, chavenet--I assumed that that's what I'd heard on the radio, but it doesn't seem to connect to it. Here's a short live set that I found elsewhere on NPR from 2022 that seems pretty good on sampling.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:45 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

mrphancy, your mention of Storm Large caught my eye. I live in Portland, Oregon - one of the places Storm Large calls home. She's a delight. Her "Holiday Ordeal" specials each winter are such a treat.

I thought, OK, I generally liked what I heard of Grace Cummings; I know Storm Large's work; kd lang is known to me. So … who was this other artist you mentioned? I spent easily two hours last night listening to Lady Blackbird, and promptly pointed all my music friends to her album Black Acid Soul this morning. SO GOOD.
posted by domesticat at 6:14 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Grace Cummings - Praise You (Fatboy Slim Cover)
posted by clawsoon at 5:02 AM on April 25 [3 favorites]