Lorette Velvette

A whirlwind of musical dialogue sweeps throughout the 18-track compilation of Lorette Velvette's first three recordings as she dances all around her punk and Delta blues leanings, showcases her glam rock tendencies, and effortlessly juxtaposes them with her trashy Cramps versus Sonic Youth side. What makes this collection of songs stand up after the admirable shock of Velvette's diversity? The song writing, it is superb. On tracks like "Cherry Red," she acts as the architect, building the foundation of the tune with a massive slide guitar riff. Then as the deconstructionist, she pulls the song apart, exposing the bones of the arrangement. Fuzzy bass along with big, roomy drums and distant, treated vocals expose the work of a musical junkyard sculpture artist and mad scientist. Velvette easily sinks into beautiful and melancholic numbers as well. "Rude Angel," a piano ballad clever in the way that it disguises its own complexity, opens up into lush, arching backing vocals to carry the hook of the song prepared by Velvette's earnest delivery. A choir of violins enters, and the song dreams away into a wonderful payoff. Just as startling as the diversity of this collection is how easily these songs flow into each other. Velvette seems to hold a consistency amid the cacophony that is hard to pin down, even covers of T. Rex ("20th Century Boy"), David Bowie ("Boys Keep Swinging"), and Fred McDowell ("You Got to Move") feel at home here. Perhaps the reason Rude Angel plays like a single album (even though its contents are culled from three), is precisely because she seems to take music as an exercise in diversity and the music she's playing is so obviously loved. Perhaps it is her vocals that tremble slightly as they escape into whichever style she has laid down before her. Only the last two tracks on the collection, an instrumental version of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" and her fife and drum composition "Frog and Peach," don't quite fit here. Both are delightful and fun and further extend her seemingly boundless diversity, but the point has already been made within the first 16 tracks. However, because these tracks sit at the end of the CD, they serve as bonus tracks to a wonderful collection of otherwise out of print music by a talented songwriter and performer from Memphis, TN. ~ Gregory McIntosh, All Music Guide