Sara Wendt, Here's Us (City Canyons, 2005)
Indie folk-rock songstress Sara Wendt's offering Here's Us has been out for a couple years at the time of this review. Here's Us is described on Wendt's artist page at City Canyons Records as a "prequel" to her most recent release, Weightless With Love, tracks of which can be sampled at Wendt's MySpace site.
Like much good art, Wendt's music is difficult to categorize. She sings with solid strength, but with an overriding wistfulness and distinctive controlled breathy quality. Her vocal stylings have been likened to such artists as Chrissie Hynde, Natalie Merchant, and Sinead O'Conner. Wendt lists among her own influences Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and The Beatles. All of the above can be readily spotted in the tracks on Here's Us, but in the end, these are only comparisons; perhaps descriptive, but not definitive.
One of the most consistently satisfying elements of Here's Us (and indeed, of its sequel Weightless With Love) is the backup instrumentals. I'm particularly fond of the background for "Pretty Dark Knight," the sitar very reminiscent of The Beatles' more tripadelic works. Other instruments slide beneath and around -- never over -- Wendt's voice; the acoustic, electric, and lap steel guitars, the mandolin, the pennywhistle and the cello.
For the title track, Wendt ramps up the country folk-rock. Her energy here reminds me more of Exene Cervenka in the X days than anyone else, though those similarities momentarily disappear for the very next track, "A Word About Last Night," until the refrain, when Wendt belts out her calculated, unapologetic, near off-key chorus. Re-enter Exene Cervenka.
There are only six tracks on Here's Us, each averaging about four minutes. It would be hard to think of this as a fully realized album, though not for any reasons of quality. The production and the recording are excellent for an indie release. The sound is clear and strong, the balance of vocals and instruments extremely satisfying. If there was a little more country twang to some of the vocal styling than I personally prefer, it was not too heavy for this to be an enjoyable album overall. I'd love to see Sara Wendt perform her songs in a crowded Manhattan basement bar, where it's rumored she garnered her earliest audiences.
To hear more of Sara Wendt's music from Here's Us, check out the album's page on the CD Baby Web site. There you can sample half the disc, including "Here's Us," "A Word About Last Night" and "Weightless With Love."
