Pina, Quick Look (Real World, 2002)
The hardest albums for me to write reviews for are invariably the ones which leave the biggest impression. When the album is not particularly well-known, and in a style that's difficult to describe or categorize, finding the right words to do justice to my experience of listening to the album can become a very frustrating endeavor. Such is the case with Quick Look, the remarkable first effort from Austrian singer Pina Kollars. To make matters worse, the other reviews I read of this album were all written by people who clearly didn't hear what soared out of my CD player, snatched me out of my chair, carried me off, and dropped me in some place slightly different from where I started. I could rattle off a string of superlatives -- best album of 2002, best album of the decade so far, possibly even the greatest debut album ever -- but while I firmly believe that all those descriptions apply, they aren't worth the space on the computer screen if I fail to make them mean something to the reader. What, then, did I hear that affected me in such a manner? Hope. I have always been a rock fan first and foremost, but so little recent rock music has been truly creative or inspiring, and my musical explorations have veered off in a number of different directions as a result. I would likewise consider Pina's music to be mainly rock at its heart, but Pina incorporates a multitude of influences from various folk influences into her songs, creating stunning music that could potentially breathe new life into a stagnating genre.
Pina's personal story, reflected in the lyrics of most of the songs on Quick Look, is quite lengthy for a new performer. Pina Pertl was born and raised in Vienna. As her mother was only 16 when she was born, Pina grew up in her grandparents' house as part of an extended family. Her grandfather, now deceased, did everything in his power to encourage her interest in music. After brief attempts to study medicine and law at the university, Pina, who by this time was already an accomplished classical guitarist, decided to pursue music as a career. She also met and fell in love with Helmut Kollars, an illustrator of children's books, and they eloped to Scotland. They did return home, but only temporarily; between family issues and a very unwelcome environment for aspiring musicians, Austria had simply become too stifling. Pina then packed up with her husband and her baby daughter Luise and permanently relocated to southwestern Ireland. She made a name for herself on the Irish festival circuit, but bad fortune struck. Her marriage with Helmut fell apart, and Pina was left juggling her musical ambitions with single parenting in a foreign country. Undaunted, she managed to make some friends in high places, and opened shows for the likes of June Tabor, Oysterband, and Ani DiFranco. Eventually she made the acquaintance of the Afro Celt Sound System, who asked her to sing with them on a track called "Go On Through" for their 2001 album, Volume 3: Further in Time. When the band played the album back to Peter Gabriel, their boss at Real World Records, Gabriel declared "Go On Through" to be his favorite song on the album, even though he himself guested on one of the other songs. Gabriel then wasted little time tracking Pina down and signing her to his label.
Like many of the CD's which hold a special place in my collection, Quick Look begins in a dramatic, unique fashion which proclaims to the listener that this is no ordinary album. Pina's opening song, "I Loved The Way," begins with the fading in of a drum, playing something of a tango rhythm. One, two, three, four-and-one, two, three, four-and... Then, two acoustic guitars come in. One is definitely a 12-string; the other could be a dobro, or whatever Lindsey Buckingham played on the Fleetwood Mac song "The Chain." Pina plays both parts, but they are so beautifully interwoven that it instead sounds like the work of two old friends playing off each other. After that comes the introduction to Pina's voice. Many reviewers describe it as "feline," which would be hopelessly clichéd even if it were accurate. Granted, there are points on this album where Pina snarls like a physically and spiritually famished tigress, but I couldn't hear anything soft, or cuddly, or slinky, or even vaguely resembling purring. Her voice has two defining characteristics. First, Pina makes no attempt to hide her Austrian accent. While it may take a few listens to pick up all the lyrics, she skillfully turns a potential obstacle into a mark of distinctiveness. Second, her voice carries a raw emotional power of the same caliber as Beth Orton. On "I Loved The Way," Pina laments her divorce, and from the moment she starts singing, the heartbreak in her voice is unnervingly palpable. Meanwhile, the gradual addition of more instruments, including bass, harmonium, and electric guitar, enhances the tension layer by layer. The song's big payoff takes place in the chorus, however. Pina harmonizes with herself wordlessly, using chordal structures owing more to the women's singing traditions in the Balkans or Scandinavia than to Western pop music. These jarring harmonies, only occasionally augmented with words, show up repeatedly in various forms throughout the album, and give the album a raw, primal energy which few contemporary works can match.
Pina effortlessly shifts back and forth between genres on the songs which follow "I Loved The Way." In particular, she incorporates elements of world music and modern folk into an alternative rock base, and pulls it off in a way that makes the merging of contrasting styles seem perfectly natural. "On A Day Like Today," the album's second song, begins with the ominous line "We had words on our flight," and tells the tale of a couple trying to patch things up after a difficult argument. This song is one of the album's rockers, but the intensity is supplied as much by Pina's haunting mellotron as by the electric guitar played by Andy Hogg, Pina's current romantic interest. The strident harmonies once again emerge in the chorus, this time backing up the lyrics instead of replacing them. On "The Flight," Pina anticipates a romantic rendezvous. Foot stomping, hand claps, and Indian ankle bells combine with the layered vocals to create the feel of a tribal gathering. Next is the classic single "Cold Storm," addressed to a person name Joe who clearly represents Pina's ex-husband. Upbeat and groove oriented, "Cold Storm" showcases Pina's deft handling of electric guitars and her mastery of three-minute power pop. The tone becomes much darker on "Josephine," a somber, cello-driven waltz. "Josephine" features the album's most chilling vocals. The chorus brings to mind the mournful lamentations in Finnish traditions, and it is easy to imagine the women of Värttinä or Me Naiset supplying the backing vocals.
The second half of the album begins with "Bring Me A Biscuit," a song about the contrasting emotions of pain and elation inherent in the experience of childbirth. "The Lady" opens with a deliciously bluesy guitar intro, and recalls Pina's efforts to coax herself out of her post-divorce shell. Once again, the foot stomping and ankle bells evoke a pow-wow. This song features the most intricate harmonies on the album, although the lead vocal could really have used another take on the final verse. Pina then brings the tempo back up with "The Tower," a seething rocker about her misadventures with the music industry. The combination of Hogg's electric guitar and Pina's subtly lethal Hammond organ make "The Tower" the album's edgiest track. And then there's that snarl. On "Debt Song," Pina plays a strange guitar-like instrument called the hodu; initially it sounds like a ukulele, but there are points in the song where Pina plays it so that it resembles Asian Indian percussion. "Debt Song" tells of a family torn apart by alcohol and spending beyond its means. Quick Look then finishes with its loudest song, "I See The Blue." Unfortunately, the wall of guitars drowns out the vocals and a subtle piano part. This song deals with the pain of being away from home, even while acknowledging the necessity. "In front of me, the slow lane's open like the sea; when I go driving, I see the blue my family got from me," Pina sings, and there's no need to ask her how that feels.
Quick Look is not easy, comfortable listening, and people looking for happy songs are best advised to look elsewhere. Having said that, Pina Kollars has created a sequence of beautifully gut-wrenching songs which expand the sonic boundaries of folk and modern rock in ways which were previously inconceivable, and this is only her first album. Perhaps, like too many other great albums, Quick Look will fall through the cracks due to a lack of awareness and understanding. On the other hand, perhaps it will be looked back on as a watershed event, when rock music rediscovered and re-embraced the primal, indigenous forces which spawned it, and which have lain mostly dormant within the genre for quite some time. Regardless of its overall fate, Quick Look has induced a religious experience in at least one listener, and I cannot wait to hear how Pina's music develops from this point.
