Mia Doi Todd's voice makes me want to cry. She sounds
so full of life and, simultaneously, so wrecked by it; it's
beautiful because it's so human. It seems she's
gathered up all of her thoughts and feelings, pulled
them out of the hidden cracks and crannies of her
subconscious, held them tightly between her arms like
a bunch of flapping birds and then, in one instant,
let them all go through this deep, penetrating, amazing
voice. Not only will her gorgeous, slurry vocals fill
your room with a warm glow, but they will carry down
the hall and fill the next room too.
On this, her fifth album, Todd, a classically trained
vocalist and Yale student (perhaps graduate now),
smartly allows her soaring, angelic voice to take the
lead, leaving the sparse arrangement of strings and
keys to take a delicate backseat. This also means her
lyricism, poignant and wry, stands out.
"Then... we enter paradise/ We are angels/ ...We
open out wings; we've understood how time and change
are fine/ They're the way/ They're the way," Todd
sings atop blistering soundscapes on the world-weary
"The Way" (the only track on the set that's a political song; the others are love songs), sounding on the verge of
either a breakdown or a revelation.
The summery, sweeping "What If We Do?" features the
warm, traveling tones of the lap steel as Todd wonders
about taking a chance on love, while the brooding,
fragile "My Room Is White" concisely captures the
awkwardness of new love, with Todd wondering if it'll really
last: "The tide comes in and we're caught/ By the
rock and the wetness neverendless/ We kiss for the
first time/ Our lips and tongues/ Tied in fitness
infiniteness/ Then the ocean pulls back somehow/ To
reveal a crowd of uncertainty." Todd's voice
sounds sad and frail.
"The Last Night of Winter" is the most upbeat song here, for its
wide array of textured strings that move you, and
building beats that keep you wanting more. The stark
"Muscle, Bone & Blood" is Todd and her piano alone,
exploring honestly the darker sides of being human. "I
am a reckless woman/ I always make such a mess/ I
follow my intuition/ Into the vampire's nest." The Latin percussion, trumpet and sax color the
aptly-titled "Casa Nova" with a playful, radiant
flavor, giving it an uplifting quality — more
lovable than lovesick.
The album closes fittingly with the simple strums and lazy
coos of "I Gave You My Home," which examines the
stability and comfort of sharing your home with a
lover: "We woke up from dreams/ Took turns at the
sink/ We crawl back into bed/ There are eggs for an
omelet/ If you're hungry."
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