Reviewing: The Ladies of Summer

Noa Babayof
From a Window to a Wall
Language of Stone Records


Adron
Adron
New Street Records


August is like a bad hangover after two swirling months of the grandest party this side of the Roaring Twenties. The never on-time train coming to whisk you away to another steaming destination, the stale smells that seem to linger at nose level, and the never-ending throngs of tourists crowding the streets are some of the signs that we have journeyed to the threshold of the dog days of summer, and easing this pain calls for a very particular kind of medication (besides booze, of course).


I listened to the first release by Israeli singer-songwriter Noa Babayof while waiting for one of the aforementioned trains, knowing that it might not be the best setting to begin listening to a release I was to review as the uncomfortable slow-roasting of the below-ground oven can quickly translate any new experience into an uncomfortable association.

Babayof sings with the sad soul of Nico, but with a harmony in her voice that at sometimes reaches out to Joni Mitchell. And while the concept of a dark folk chanteuse is nothing new to the Language of Stone family of music (Lights, Ex-Reverie), Babayof brings something new to the young label. While most of the bands on the label dollop their recordings with spaced out guitar (provided by producer/label honcho Greg Weeks of Espers), a different yet perpetual air of dreaminess envelops From a Window to a Wall. The baroque arrangements are clean and tasteful, proof that The Beatles' influence has indeed carried all over the world.
She also shares a definite association with contemporaries like Hope Sandoval, Marissa Nadler, and even nodding to Sharron Kraus.
Babayof has created a work of beauty, and for Language of Stone, yet another wonderful release in a summer that has seemed to belong to them.

The destination of 21-year old Adron's (real name Adrienne McCann) quest seems to be on a parade float in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival basking in the sun. Her debut self-titled record could easily find it's way into the happy ears of any fan of some Elephant 6 Records more notable alumni. And while the Beatles-esque psych pop is on display here in heavy doses, it's Adron's interpretation of 60's Brazilian Tropicalia . She breezes into OS Mutantes territory the way Devendra Banhart only dreams he could as he lays awake at night in his cottage in Laurel Canyon.
Out of nowhere (actually Brooklyn by way of Atlanta) she has produced a debut of such surprising maturity that the sheer idea of what she will do in the future is almost too good to imagine.