lb12 reviews



		DIANA DARBY fantasia ball CD Richard Riegel, Creem Magazine What if they freeze-dried the '60s and nobody came? That's the feeling this album conveys, some lost essence of the Fab decade uncluttered with myth and nostalgia. Fantasia Ball sounds like the teenage Marianne Faithfull's first two albums, if all the Brit studio orchestration were drained away and that little bird was left with only her plaintive voice and a guitar to get by. Diana Darby's second album, recorded at home on 4-track, is just that dry and pretty and endlessly insinuating. She's based in Nashville, where ice tea comes presweetened if you don't ask, but this music isn't—it's spare, minimal, just Darby's softly disquieting vocals and guitar (with subtle, occasional backups from cello, drums, etc.) speaking slim & infinite volumes. "My Own," a dark confessional of family strife, has gathered much attention so far, but I like the forever-changed neo-samba of "Summer," the resigned hedonism of "If It Feels Good" (the squares'll be worried), and Darby's methadone-acted vocal on "Happy" even better. After 10 fine Darby originals, the album ends with a cover of the perfectly-chosen 1965 Rolling Stones tune "Blue Turns to Grey," bringing the Marianne Faithfull soul of Fantasia Ball full circle: Mick Jagger (in his jaunty sailor suit) sang about the easy-rolling blue, but Darby (as Faithfull before her) deflects to the sterner passion of the grey. (top) Gabriele Pescatore, Il Mucchio Magazine Fantasia Ball, secondo album di Diana Darby, è uno di quei lavori di cui ci si innamora alla follia. Oppure lo si finisce per odiare, stremati dalla circolarità con cui si ripetono le armonie. Come era stato per l’esordio (Naked Time), anche stavolta la cantautrice americana non sceglie mezze misure: trentotto minuti in cui siamo accompagnati quasi esclusivamente della sua voce e da una chitarra acustica che (fatta eccezione per basso, contrabbasso e violoncello che compaiono, qua e là, quasi per magia) disegnano atmosfere minimali ed intimiste, fragili e ricche di una poesia che riporta alla mente certe cose di Joni Mitchell (l’accostamento non sembri azzardato…) o anche, per restare al presente, la migliore Cat Power. Più che canzoni, quelle che la Darby sussurra sono magnetiche cantilene, come quelle, ispiratissime, con cui ci accoglie: sia Fly Away che Falling Down, infatti, raccontano le piccole cose - soprattutto le delusioni - del quotidiano con uno stile che piace perché trasmette timidezza e vulnerabilità; quelle che poi, a ben vedere, sono le caratteristiche di tutta l’opera. Su If It Feels Good alla chitarra viene attaccata la spina e i suoni prodotti - assieme al basso che si percepisce in lontananza ma che poco si intromette - accrescono il vigore di una composizione che con il passare dei secondi si fa sempre più intensa e che, anche in versione acustica, sarebbe risultata splendida. Ferry, invece, impressiona per la presenza di un contrabbasso e di un triangolo con le parti vocali che, per una volta, risultano meno ovattate, tutt’altro che rumorose, comunque impreziosite dagli archi il cui eco arriva inaspettato. E si va avanti così, tra confessioni decisamente autobiografiche di sogni infranti (My Own) e ricordi perduti, forse, per sempre (Caroline). Il tutto, opportuno ribadirlo, con una classe ed una maturità che, considerata la giovanissima età della musicista, non possono che stupire. Canzoni semplici e toccanti, piene della grazia che solo i veterani riescono a possedere e che, invece, sono scritte da una quasi esordiente. Di cui sentiremo ancora parlare. (top) Elio Bussolino, Kataweb Per ascoltare la voce di questa cantautrice texana sarà proprio il caso di aguzzare udito e attenzione. Un piccolo sforzo che le canzoni del suo secondo album personale ripagheranno generosamente. Il registro emotivo di queste canzoni è infatti inversamente proporzionale al timbro vocale della Darby, sembra cioè aumentare mano a mano che parole e suoni si fanno più flebili e soffusi. Il suo è un piccolo capolavoro di grazia e parsimonia, un album che pare concepito per lenire malinconie inguaribili, sedare dolori profondi, stemperare paure ataviche, un disco che pare fatto di nulla e che al contrario è in grado di offrire moltissimo. La sensazione di percepire l'impalpabile battito d'ali di Fly Away e il tepore caduco di un'estate che volge ormai al termine - Summer -, il fermo immagine di un quadro domestico che nulla e nessuno sembra poter mutare - The Only One Who's Listening -, il ritratto di una ragazza degno di uno stilnovista - Caroline - e una cover spettrale di Blue Turns To Grey dei Rolling Stones. Chi può disdegnare il conforto di una voce così discreta e seducente? (top) Salvatore Patti, MusicbOOm webzine (italiano) For a law of nature, everyone that heard "Nothing left to lose", Incidental's tribute to Kris Kristoffersson, fell in love with the same song: "Jesus was a Capricorn" by Diana Darby, a young texan that once moved to Nashville looking for inspiration and fertile soil for her songwriting. Luckily for us, between those lovers were the people from Love Boat, now bringing Diana's second album to Italy. It may look strange, but the same Miss Darby found a new starting point in that song's velvety thinness, questioning everything she said with her first album "Naked Time", to which the most in love had already turned. Very few is left of the warm country feel of that release, the comfort of tradition having been blown away by a new intensity that turns Diana into a mature artist. Exit lap steel, organ and upright bass, she's left with just her guitar, a 4-track recorder and Ned Henry's cello, the only precious embellishment to the author's new minimalism. "Fantasia Ball" is a familiar record, but at the same time it's distant from everything we experience daily: it's not similar to Cat Power, with whom she though shares an hermeticism that hides some buried pain, or to Hope Sandoval, in spite of the same nasal tone of her voice. Diana's lyrical/poetic ability rather makes you think of Patti Smith and early Suzanne Vega, with the only substancial difference that Diana's talking only about herself. A visionary author, Diana tells herself through eleven enigmatic sketches, and despite a deliberate poor sound she knows how to provide her songs with keen melodic richness. Henry's cello is fundamental in this sense, adding substance and significance to "Fly Away" and "Ferry": the resulting effect -dazing, nice and dramatic all in one- is without a doubt one of "Fantasia Ball"'s strengths, but the record has a lot more going on: it has late afternoon songs with Penelope Houston-like voice and thicker electric numers like "If It Feels Good". It has the light whispers of "The only one who's listening" and gets suddenly dark with two dark and oppressive ballads, both dedicated to her mother: "My own" with its menacing crescendo and "Mother" -which can be brought back to the Lennon song of the same title- with its resigned detachment replacing pain in the repetition of the "Mother/I can't be/what you want" mantra. And there's a song named "Caroline" that pairs with "Malcolm's Song" on "Naked Time" (which talked about a Carolina, too) putting us in front of the abyss between the traditional songriting on "Naked Time" and the forms free of all ties on "Fantasia Ball" . An extraordinary leap of whiche we are lucky witnesses. (top) Marco Delsoldato, Kronik webzine (italiano) In a time not too far away the cult name was Chan Marshall, but she deservedly passed the cult status now, so american female songwriting needs a new light, a new Thalia Zedek moving hearts and souls. There's many pretenders to the throne, but just one is my favourite: Diana Darby. (...) Good job, Love Boat, because it won't happen so often to have a velvety siren in your ranks. Because there's a lot of beautiful female voices, and a lot of girls that can play a ballad with their guitar, but talents so pure are hard to find. Her voice is often just a whisper, intensity and intimacy go out together for a night walk, on a dim road, where only some ancient lanterns show the path. And while walking, don't expect any weird surprise: vocie and guitar, nothing more except for Ned Henry's cello here and there. The road is all for Diana, for her never mawkish melancholy, for her personal warmth, for her life told to everyone of us. Bound to shock you, with a disarming quietness. (top) Maurizio Marino, Rockerilla magazine (italiano) With an album only released in the Usa and some important compilation appearances, Diana Darby gets some good recognition here with the release of her second album for Italy's Love Boat. Suspended between the rarefied atmosphere of Hope Sandoval, the delicate elegies of Beth Gibbons and the dark side of Thalia Zedek, Darby gives life to ten sophisticated ballads for voice, guitar and imperceptible touches of other instruments, drawing soundscapes with the scent of great songwriting. At the end of the record, a wonderful rendition of "Blue Turns to Grey" by The Rolling Stones. (top) Rossan Lo Mele, Rumore magazine (italiano) They say a just released Arthur Lee fell in love with her first album. In case you care, her new record caused the same reaction in us. She is Diana Darby, newcomer in the circle of american indie singer/songwriters, strong with a rather hard to find talent: sounding traditional, but looking forward. Like, say, halfway between Suzanne Vega and Low. Plus everything that's in the middle: Yo La Tengo's (Summer) and The Velvet Underground's (Caroline) ballads, Nico's (Ferry) and Aimee Mann's (My Own) shattered voice, the dark solo pages of Kendra Smith (Fly Away) and a thrilling cover of the Stones (Blue Turns To Grey). (top) Stefano Milano, Rumore magazine (italiano) There are records that knock you out from the very beginning, with an uncommon immediacy. And voices that can speak to the heart. Diana Darby's Fantasia Ball is all this, but much more. Because this american singer/songwriter -revealed to the italian audience thanks only to the passion and research of Love Boat- has tons of charm and talent. Her songs -stylistically close to Anne Sexton, that she defines "a person that, like me, is capable of observing small things"- are fragile tales of pieces of her existential microcosm, described "without being afraid of vulnerability, which especially in american culture is considered something to hide". Stories of arguments with her mother, escapes from solitude, suicide attempts leading to freedom. "Stories that belong to something unknown and bigger than me -Diana explains- and that simply flow through my voice and my lyrics". Her record has been recorded in complete solitude because "since when I was a kid I watched others play and stayed on my own. And for Fantasia Ball I needed to be alone to get inside myself, without anyone looking at the studio clock turning". A solitude that allows to enter a secret world, letting the fantasia ball roll along the edges of ordinary bits of reality. (top) Mike Diver, Logo/Do Something Pretty Finding CDs waiting for me on my return home from my ‘proper’ job is nothing out of the ordinary. Finding a package from Italy is. Incredibly, what I find inside isn’t merely outside the norm, it’s positively extraordinary. ‘Fantasia Ball’, Darby’s second LP, was previously released through tiny US label Delmore, but now Torino-based Love Boat have seen fit to grant it an official European release, and they deserve much praise for doing so. Her mostly husky voice, set against a gentle acoustic guitar, barely detectable drums and sparse overdubs, will instantaneously incite thoughts of Nina Nastasia, Thalia Zedek, and Hope Sandoval, whilst on ‘The Only One Who’s Listening’ it echoes the gentle whisper of Stina Nordenstam. Basically, it’s Darby’s raspy, scraped-dry vocal chords that are the star attraction. The music is kept simple, and by doing so, ‘Fantasia Ball’ has a beauty unmatched by many of Darby’s peer’s efforts. ‘If It Feels Good’ poses the question, "What’s the use in having lips/if your lips never kiss?" Likewise, what’s the point in having ears, if you never really listen? Listen. (top) Fabio Battistetti, Movimenta webzine Diana Darby pubblica il suo secondo album in Europa per la nostrana Love Boat; lei è la cantautrice americana dell'immaginario comune, ed allo stesso tempo è un'autrice di musica attuale, non suona ballate mielose, ma bensì canzoni vicine alla poesia. Il disco alterna brani in cui la voce fluttua tra note scarne e minimali, in una sensazione di avvolgimento; altri brani hanno il sapore della canzonetta, fanno compagnia in mezzo ad un'immaginaria notte, evocando intimità che la voce di Diana sa concedere. Fantasia Ball è minimale nella struttura (voce, chitarra, violoncello...) ma caldo nell'impatto, così come lo sono i testi: semplici, ma intensi nell'interpretazione. La grafica è scarna e presenta nel retro la foto di un cane, il che mi fa pensare alla copertina di Knock Knock di Smog dove c'era un gatto in copertina... analogie? Può darsi. (top) Norman Records Here's a CD by Diana Darby who I know nothing about as no-one at this establishment responded to my promping. Its on the amazingly named Love Boat Records and Buttons establishment of Torino, Italy. Its a lovely CD. Quiet songs sung by a lady, probably recorded on 4 track in a sun dappled drawing room. Ah! I've found a flyer think Hope Sandoval, Kristen Hersh, Kendra Smith. An incredibly lazy gorgeous summer record. The warm breeze is whispering around the towers. Life couldn't be better. (top) Rockbites webzine Houston-born, Nashville-based Diana Darby whispers the truthful, existential songs on her second album Fantasia Ball as though reading to herself from her diary, very late at night, in her dimly lit bedroom. It's just unadorned and fragile voice and guitar captured to cassette tape, along with the most sparing embellishment from other instruments, that paint these gripping, gorgeous emotiscapes. Lo fi? Uh huh. You'll find refrigerator hum, odd buzzes, an ambulance siren, her dog barking, and plenty of tape hiss on this disc. This is good. Wrapping such music in a pretty, tidy sonic package would have been like putting crunchy, bright candy coating around salmon sushi. Darby's lyrics, like the poetry on her website, are a study in intimate minimalism. Take her song Summer: Summer, Summer's comin'/And I feel the rain/There’s nothing I can do/To change a thing. Or the even softer and slower Happy: You say you want me to be happy/You say you want me to be happy all the time/I don't know, I don't know, I don’t know/How to do that. Darby and her musical partners Mark Linn, JZ Barrell, and David Henry have done the right thing by putting nothing between you and her voice but a cassette recorder - as Darby put nothing between her internal world and her expression of these songs. Now, songs so simple and delicate work only if they express a universal truth. And this woman's damn well tapped into that, no mistake. There's a lot of emptiness and darkness in Fantasia Ball's quiet, beautiful tracks - reflecting the Buddhist notion that you cannot connect with life without embracing its absence. For every artist there's a line between what a song means to them and the version they offer to the world. Intimate singer/songwriters let you closer. Darby, in an act of courage or perhaps because she just never learned about that boundary, invites you to come over and sit down right beside her, shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh, on her side of that line. (top) Jason MacNeil, Popmatters webzine After her debut album Naked Time, many critics were convinced that Diana Darby was somebody to take notice of. But while she hasn't necessarily been the front-page starlet, her music and fragile, near childlike vocals have continued to cause a stir. A recent contribution to a Kris Kristofferson tribute album turned heads. Now with her new album, the vocals are as sparse and near spoken word as one can imagine. Working in a small trio arrangement only heightens her vocals -- at times chilling and warming all at once. "Fly Away" gets things off to a dramatic beginning courtesy of David Henry's cello. Darby's vocals could be compared to a late-night phone conversation with a newfound love or a tethered relationship. "If I could live even for a day / Without my head saying all those things / I would fly away", she sings in a style that perhaps only Lisa Germano could consistently excel at. Recording at home also gives the song, as well as the album, a very close and comfy feeling. "Falling Down" is more of a folk-oriented song as Darby strums her guitar and creates a mood of autumn in the air. Thankfully, Darby has more than enough strength in her lyrics to make the whispery hushed vocals very alluring from the onset. The subtle organ and bass on the song gives it a touch of audible color. "If It Feels Good" has more of a lo-fi indie rock aura. But the country guitar twang and jangle results in an interesting crossover. "If it feels good do it / And don't worry", Darby says in a Lou Reed sort of way. "Summer", a song that Darby wrote about spring ending, was influenced by the poetry of Mary Oliver according to the press kit. The dreamy pop groove and Darby's basic "ba ba bas" gives it a light feeling despite the rather deep structure. The minimal nature to the track is what Darby does best, namely knowing what works and making inroads with each track. Two-thirds of the way into the song the dreamy portion grows on you as she says there's "Nothing I can do to change a thing". Darby misses the mark somewhat on "Ferry", a number whereby she never really finds her voice within the song. The lyrics are strong but the way they are communicated is off-kilter and perhaps too folk-oriented. "Turn the lights off / You're a bad boy", she sings before Henry's cello solo starts. Not quite singing but not quite spoken word, it's a bit of an unfortunate adventure. "My Own" is direct and includes her best lyrics. Strumming the guitar with more authority and a sense of intensity, the backing rhythm section pipes in slowly but steadily, just enough to build it into something moody and murky. The controlled tension Darby has is one of her many assets. It's as if Lucinda Williams met PJ Harvey. "The Only One Who's Listening" resembles Darby at her wit's end. "What's the point of giving all your cigarettes away / What's the point in hoping / You can find a better way", she utters as if on the verge of a nervous or emotional breakdown. Audible breathing between lines as well as the sound of lips parting makes it all the more eerie. Self-doubt and general confusion seems to be at the root of these songs, making them fairly accessible and universal. "Happy" has a certain Cowboy Junkies quality surrounding it -- not quite a dirge but far from lifting one's spirits. A somber joy to be sure. The only cover song is the Rolling Stones' "Blue Turns to Grey" from the group's December's Children album. Completely revamping the song to suit her style, Darby gives it a totally different interpretation. For a talent to silence a room with a near silent approach is a testament this quality performer. (top) Tadah, Urbansmarts webzine Last year, the Incidental label released the tribute to Kris Kristofferon's music "Nothing Left To Lose". On this compilation, various artists interpreted the country music of the probably better known as an actor musician. It was a heartfelt selection, with the artists caring for the music and songs they were performing. One of the songs was even going a little deeper than the heart, opening up the soul and exposing everything. The song was Diana Darby's version of "Jesus Was A Capricorn". A song that was silent, almost empty, minimalist and whispered. The same Diana now returns with an album full of her own tracks (ignoring the other cover version), that again bares a lot, and that gives us her view on the other f music genre: call this folk, not funk. The noise level on this record barely reaches over the determined sung verse here and there. Diana has a whispering voice (done to almost disappearing proportions on "The Only One Who's Listening"), and thus almost shyly she voices her self written lyrics. And because she's looking out the window, as opposed to leaning out the window, her wish to "Fly Away" captures a spirit that wants to be free, but still feels best at home. The cello on this song played by David Henry makes this one of the most instrumented songs on the record. Because already "Falling Down" is stripped down, plugging in a four track, recording this to tape (what only makes the sound scruffy on "Mother" though), and barely recognizing the canned electronica possibilities. It's a simplified approach, that makes you feel even more present. Because with the one take approach of the records, the loudspeakers look more like a chair where Diana is actually sitting on. Playing to you. "Summer" is one of those honest songs that everyone that every felt a ray of sunlight will appreciate. Despite the tale of lost, this is an almost upbeat moment. And further, the track itself separates its potency from much of the record, as with the little 'da-da-dum' singing, even brighter images are projected in your brain. That's part of the soundtrack quality this has. The other part is the sticky, and a little broader melody of this song. With a process like this, anger is as alien as warmth to a glacier. What makes a "My Own" sound even grittier, with a rising bass and guitar. What then sounds like your mother calling you with your first and middle name, letting you know immediately that you did something wrong. The hurt is continued on "Happy", where an imaginary character requests happiness from Diana (while making her blush when he says that she's pretty). But her eyes are too open for that. Despite her being introvert, she still has to let too much hurt through, what is why she 'does not know how to be happy.' A guitar bridge gives a little comfort, by hugging Diana who then might just withdraw again into her doubts and insecurities. What's an interpretation. However, it's obvious that this music says a lot. Probably also about Diana. Like her eyes, this music can't seem to lie. With the sadness being real, our joy is real as well, when the sky opens up for "Caroline". Another song that takes us on a travel, through rich of harvest fields, and golden shadows. This tale about a pure person, furthers the views on the earth that we see through Diana's eyes. Before she then borrows words from the Rolling Stones, by covering their "Blue Turns To Grey". Like "Jesus Was A Capricorn", she truly adapts the song to her way to do music. The guitar is her only companion. The melodic structure is thinned and her clean voice speaks the singing. With the tale again being melancholic, with her searching, missing confidence and security. Moments she must find in her music though. And as much as it speaks about pain, it still must feel good. And "if it feels good, do it. And don't care". She says on "If It Feels Good". So don't care, but listen. (top) Alex Steininger, In Music We Trust webzine Recorded at home on a 4-track cassette machine, Diana Darby's Fantasia Ball flourishes, her weepy, hushed voice and the muffled acoustic guitar conveying intimacy and urgency. Dark and moody, the songs sound right at home when you're alone, comforting you as you both rejoice at each other's company. Here is a singer-songwriter who can write touching, sparse songs that need little accompaniment, filled only by the dirty sound of the acoustic guitar and Darby's contempt-filled voice. This is female anti-folk with a heart beating on her sleeve. I'll give it a B. (top) Mike Cobley, Virtual Brighton magazine Recorded at home on to four track cassette, yet sounding like a multi-tracked cinematic score .. Nashville-based Diana Darby has created something quite extraordinary with her second, and latest, album, 'Fantasia Ball'. The ten self-penned tracks, plus one cover, conjure up images of sparsely filled art houses, inhabited by a cerebral collective of high-browed out-of-this-world freaks. Yet, listen closely and Diana Darby's dark words and incessantly catchy melodies should appeal to all, if they just take enough time out to let 'Fantasia Ball' sink in to their consciousness. Diana says that the performances captured: ".. are either first takes being sung as they were written, or radical re-workings that happened only once .. I am in an altered state where everything else around me disappears." Hushaby-like opening track, 'Fly Away', begins with the line: "If I could be anything at all, I would step out of myself and I'd never call', setting the tone for the set ahead. Diana seems more than slightly miffed by the skin she finds herself in .. Paul Weller had his 'Wild Wood', but Diana Darby seems momentarily lost behind Elvis Costello's 'Deep Dark Truthful Mirror'. Not so much frightened to look into it, but damned if she'll be governed by what she sees. Following the captivating 'Falling Down' comes the first 'real' track of the set, 'If It Feels Good'. A lazy skipping rhythm playing over a provocative call to wicked arms: "What's the use in having lips if your lips never kiss/If it feels good don't worry ... ". Next up is something you'll either hate or grow to love. I fall into the latter camp as 'Summer', heralded and parted by a relentless scratchy acoustic strum, is a song fit for any end-of-year Best Of collection. I for one will be locking friends in the living room until they 'get it'. It really is that good, and that different. And if you are talking songs to take to the grave, then 'Ferry' should be filed under 'don't forget to take with me after I'm gone.' A crashing self-confessional wave of tortured beauty. 'My Own' is frightening in both its delivery and content. Kurt Cobain like lines: "You taught me how to be afraid/I wasn't born this way/This isn't something I'll outgrow," mixed with a Nirvana Unplugged delivery. Awesome! All flows along swimmingly until the 1 minute 17 seconds that is, 'Mother'. Think Twin Peaks, think late night 'Real Blair Witch' documentaries. Diana Darby shouldn't be in the movies, she should be sound-tracking them. She rounds off the set with the Jagger/Richards (Rolling Stones to you at the back) standard, 'Blue Turns To Grey'. The song has clearly been stripped to its skeleton and reborn as a Diana Darby classic. It sits equally beside the rest of 'Fantasia Ball' .. a stunning collection of cinematic masterpieces. Diana Darby has something so unique that I worry there may be nothing left to discover! Find out more about Diana Darby @ www.dianadarby.com or email Diana at delmores@comcast.net and demand to purchase a copy of 'Fantasia Ball'. It really is that good! (top) San Francisco Burning Sometimes one has to maintain a vision of what is beautiful. Diana Darby makes music that is a personal diary about love and her family. Often her songs are only guitar and voice. The songs sound like a whispered message from a friend. People who like Cat Power and Miranda Lee Richards will probably like this better. Diana captures a moment that feels like when the Velvet Undergound meets Love. But Diana is a storyteller too, and songs like "If It Feels Good" and "Ferry" expand our world. She mixes folk music with blues. It's very attention grabbing. It's a window to another world, where it's okay to be vulnerable. I am tired of the continuing death of eros. This is desiring and yearning music. It's an honest record that deals with beauty. Diana's voice holds my attention. It must be heard in a dark room on a special night. (top) Gillian G. Gaar, Rolling Stone Online Diana Darby Fantasia Ball (Delmore Recording Society) There's a popular misconception that quiet music has to be gentle music, a notion that's turned on its head on Diana Darby's Fantasia Ball. Subdued guitars provide most of the instrumentation, a cello adds the requisite atmosphere, and bass and drums lurk somewhere in the background, but it's Darby's scraped-dry vocals that hold your attention, murmuring phrases like "Why are all the flowers dying?" or "You taught me how to be afraid" in your ear. Darby has an excellent grasp on how to create a mood that envelops the listener, even as the mood becomes increasingly disturbing, as in "My Own," an ode to mother that ultimately takes a sinister turn. The final track, a stripped down reworking of the Stones' "Blue Turns to Grey," sums up Darby's aching worldview. (top) John Lonergan, NetRhythms UK Fantasia Ball can be quite an uncomfortable listen. So candid and forthright is Diana Darby on her second album that you may feel you have been eavesdropping on an intensely private conversation. Her half sung-half whispered vocals are reminiscent of Hope Sandoval's in Mazzy Star and are mixed so that she seems to be in the room alongside you. Remarkably, the majority of these songs were improvised in a single take, direct to four-track cassette and such is the level of intimacy which Diana creates, that you feel she is in the room alongside you. Even the beautifully overdubbed cellos seem to intrude on the air of privacy which has been established. Along the way we are introduced to Caroline who, like a character from a Gabriel Garcia Marques novel, leaves a magical trail of roses in her wake. The subject of negative self-image is boldly tackled in Happy, (a deeper meditation on the theme than Kasey Chambers' 'Not Pretty Enough'), and My Own - a bold analysis of the mother-daughter relationship which begins with the couplet, "I feel your blood run through my veins, I pray to God we're not the same" and then heads for even darker waters. Ultimately, the result is a seductive and compelling 'after dark' album. (top) Josh Rogers, The Portland Phoenix Fucking cool: When Arthur Lee, front man for the '60s dark pop group Love, was released from jail, the first guitar he touched was Diana Darby's. She says her playing's never been the same since. Darby's spare, haunting songs lie somewhere between Nick Drake, Mazzy Star, and Galaxie 500, and remind that for every feel-good party/road-trip anthem like 50 Cent's "In da Club," there's an introspective, stargazing-summer-nights song like Darby's "Summer," with lyrics that make your neck prickle with the chill of autumn: "Summer's coming/Better get yourself a flower before it's too late" (and I think you know what she means). (top) Jim Macnie, The Providence Phoenix Sometimes a mere hush can be revelatory, and singer Diana Darby makes sure that her whispered vocals and murmured music are as candid as you can stand. On 2000's Naked Time, the Nashville-based songwriter moved ahead of her quiet competition - Cat Power, Hope Sandoval - because her minimalist pieces of music-poetry had plenty of melody bolstering them. The new Fantasia Ball (Delmore) is even more enchanting. Here Darby relies on repetition to woo her audience. A strumming pattern or lyrical cadence is all she needs to ensnare you. As she floats a series of images by your ears - the clock ticking on the wall, insects falling from the sky, her mother's dissatisfaction with who her daughter has become - the gentle lapping of Darby's voice pulls you into the songs' terrible truths. The music is both ominous and reassuring- a mildly disturbing one-two punch. Along with Lisa Germano's Lullaby for the Liquid Pig, Fantasia Ball is one of the dreamiest discs of the year. (top) Laurence Arnold, Comes With A Smile The title may well conjure up images of dancing hippos and possessed broomsticks cavorting under a glitterball sparkled vaulted ceiling, but the sound is more akin to the morning after, all hushed voices and gentle playing. In fact, even the song titles are written in lower case to keep the noise down. Mostly recorded on four track, with some haunting cello added later, 'Fantasia Ball' has a sparse sound that would rattle around a dancehall like a crazed pinball. This is a record for the early hours, when neither horizon shows signs of light and the slightest sound is amplified by your heightened senses. Fly Away opens with a whisper and barely rises above that, but then it doesn't need to as is says it all without raising its voice. Falling Down manages to be even quieter, "just the sound of insects, beating wings to death"would drown it out with ease. Oddly, you can imagine some of the songs being performed in a rock-out manner, but not now, this is stripped down, even barer than 'Naked Time', Diana's previous album. One such rocker could be If it Feels Good. It has all the ingredients, but here it relaxes and puts its slippers on to gaze at the night sky that Summer twinkles beneath. There are a few songs with that title that disappoint and this one doesn't add to the low tally, it also gives another perspective to the record, giving it the feel of a hot afternoon, the type when nothing stirs in the heat and being alone seems the best option. My Own tries to raise some dust, almost breaking a sweat of noisy drums, but it is nothing more than a small disturbance that subsides as breezily as it arrived, tiptoeing into The Only One Who's Listening before anyone comes along to see what the ruckus was. The gentle ring of Caroline wafts along with a lazy rocking, (the chair type, that is). The sleepiness of the album might get some down, but the fact it remains so diaphanous is fine. It's not flimsy or slight, but filmy and light. It has an inner strength to see it through the dark night and harsh day equally well. Two albums down and both have shown a maturity and flair that makes you look forward to the next. Seems that Diana is set to become the belle of any ball she attends. (top) MP, Americana-UK Just in case we needed a reminder of what lo-fi is all about, Diana Darby's record was put together largely on 4 track cassette at her home in Nashville; we first heard her on the recent Kristofferson tribute "Nothing Left To Lose", giving "Jesus was a Capricorn" a satisfying work-over, and have been looking forward to "Fantasia Ball" ever since. Darby is Texan by birth, like Kristofferson, and makes a living writing poetry and teaching creative writing to pay for getting her musical artistry down on wax. Everyone from PJ Harvey to Kristin Hersh and Nico come to mind listening to "Fantasia Ball"- now that's some pretty elevated company, but as with all three of those artists, Darby has a knack of suggesting something quite dark and disturbing at the same time as uttering softly-spoken melodies. David Henry makes a well judged and impressive contribution with his cello on several tracks, especially on "Fly Away", where he adds to the ghostly, tentative nature of the expression, which is no less deeply felt for all of it's unsure hold on life. "Falling Down" appears to nod in the direction of Blue Oyster Cult (!) and feels like it may be a cousin of something that Rebecca Hall gave creative birth to; it's a stark beauty, with a delicate organ backing and something of the fear of mortality about it- Diana appears to remind us of the finality of our passing. Almost all the songs here, whatever their embellishments, are about the voice and the guitar, and the centrality of the human element reinforces the storytelling; "If it Feels Good" presents the incitement "if it feels good, do it, and don't worry (and don't care)" and asks the question "don't you think it's about time our lips said hello?"- it's the most optimistic moment on the album, and simply bursts with gently-expressed vitality and joy. Lastly, "Summer" combines Throwing Muses strumming with Lemonheads-era Julianna Hatfield backing vocals, and is worth the asking price all by itself. "Fantasia Ball" is quite some emotional journey- one you should take today; Darby seems quite capable of continuing the work of Hersh, Harvey and Paffgen- her talent can cope with the weight of expectation. (top) Godsend Online Diana Darby - "Fantasia Ball" CD - Fresh from her standout appearance on the Kris Kristofferson tribute, "Nothing Left To Lose", Nashville-based singer/songwriter Diana Darby unleashes her second LP. A stripped-down, moody, and timeless collection of introspective songs, 'Fantasia Ball' showcases Darby's dedication to her songs and craft. Her delicate, whispery, often-ghostly voice allows the songs to breathe and remain pure, with only minimal accompaniment. It's a dreamlike, hallucinogenic kind of texture that permeates this album, harkening back to the finer of the folksy troubadours of the 60s. On these 11 tracks, Darby manages to convey some poignant, heartfelt emotions and channel them into a very strong selection of songs, stories, and atmospheric textures that stir, touch, and embellish the spaces between. (top) Ruggero Marinello, Roots Highway Nel panorama di voci femminili da cui siamo assaliti negli ultimi tempi, eccome uno nuovo da tenere decisamente sott'occhio. Si tratta di Diana Darby, che con questo *Fantasia Ball* va a prendere posto fra le varie Nina Nastasia, Thalia Zedeck, Cat Power. Insomma fra quelle chanteuse che per trasmettere le loro sensazioni hanno bisogno di ben poche cose: una chitarra acustica, una viola (Ned Henry) qua e là e poco altro, tanto è la loro malinconica, ammaliante, ma intensa voce a fare la differenza, a creare quella fantastica atmosfera da cui, una volta entrati, risulta ben più difficile uscire. Perché in fondo in queste canzoni si agitano i nostri fantasmi, che ci portano dove vogliono loro, o forse chissà, dove vogliamo noi. Questo è un disco di una purezza malinconica portata all'estremo, dove possiamo immaginare che la cantante sia nella nostra stanza, tanto riesce a farsi sentire vicina e dove le canzoni si muovono fra echi di Velvet Underground e inevitabili accostamenti a certa cinematografia, con la loro capacità di trasportarci se chiudiamo gli occhi e al contempo a farci sentire gli stati d'animo dell'artista. Stati d'animo che possono essere anche i nostri e che è sufficiente una chitarra per esternare, senza fronzoli, ma con il cuore in mano. Non vi segnalo canzoni particolari se non If it feels good che avrebbe potuto benissimo far parte della discografia dei già citati Velvet e la cover di Blue Turns to Grey (Rolling Stones). Per il resto è tutto il disco nel suo insieme ad essere una magia, un viaggio all'interno della nostra anima, negli angoli più sperduti dove ancora regna la purezza. Complimenti Diana, hai colpito nel segno. Questo splendido album è già nel mio cuore. 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