Katie Barbato, The Tapestry Room (label unknown, 2003)
Well, I've had this disc for nigh on two months, and I still can't think of anything in particular to describe it. It's not as if the disc hasn't been played; on the contrary, I've listened to it many times on repeat play and I can even sing or hum bits of it when I'm in the shower. No, it's more due to the fact that the disc is undistinguished, blending in with many other discs which I've heard over the years.
"Undistinguished" shouldn't be confused with "incompetent," because all the constituent parts are present -- strong singing, reasonable songs, guitars and drums. But there's a kind of reverse synergy in action here -- the whole is less than the sum of the parts. A contributing factor to this might well be Ms. Barbato's voice: simply put, it's unattractive. It's not a strong and dominant voice, neither is it warm and caressing. It's a sound from which I don't derive pleasure, and if we're talking about a vocal-led disc, then it's pretty important that the lead singer has a voice that one can listen to.
The disc lasts "only" 35 minutes, which some might consider paltry these days. There are ten tracks, but as two of these are instrumental interludes (which segue seamlessly into the following songs, so one might not even notice that they're there), doing the maths shows that there are eight songs on the disc, all of which were composed by Ms. Barbato (one jointly composed with Stu Peleczar). These songs suffer from a certain similarity (excuse the alliteration), and as there are no lyrics available, it's often very difficult to know to which song one is listening.
The instrumentation is a basic rock line-up: acoustic and electric guitars, organ, bass and drums. There are very few totally instrumental passages, and these are led by the electric guitar, providing a very typical rock sound. Every now and then a song will provide a dramatic chord change, but in the dynamic desert of this disc, even a moderately interesting change will sound interesting. The simplistic piano accompaniment to "Blue Sky Descent" is thus in complete contrast to the rest of the songs, even though it doesn't have too much ambition. Could this be the best song of the bunch? No, I think I have to award this prize to the unlisted instrumental which closes the disc, "Sarah Has Been Eaton (sic) by a Monster", which was written by coproducer and main musician Tuck Stocking. This is everything that the other songs aren't: pointillistic doodlings, space between the instruments, and no vocals. Tuck was also responsible for the other instrumental interludes.
My promotional copy of the disc arrived with only back insert and front cover, so I don't know whether the commercial version comes with an added booklet. Given the fact that this would seem to be a private production, I assume that a booklet would be too much for the budget. Thus I have no idea what the songs are about, and the time honoured method of actually listening to the lyrics doesn't work when the singer's voice acts as a deterrent.
But why be negative? These days of free information allow everybody access to the same sources. Katie's Web site is here, and streamable versions of her songs are available for listening to at CD Baby. I also found a much more positive review elsewhere on the net, although a less kind-hearted soul than myself might wonder whether we were listening to the same disc.
