The Brightness

The room is dark. On this romantic and mysterious shadowy-blue starry night, a melancholy woman lies alone, naked in bed by her window looking out into the wondrous night. The look on her face tells you she has deep thoughts pervading her sentiments. While she ponders, a long winding trail of smoke from her cigarette escapes out a window on the other side of the room, inviting one to come along.

This unpretentious scene marks the general mood of the Righteous Babe Records debut of The Brightness; the new record by repeat traveler Anais (ah-NAY-iss) Mitchell. Righteous Babe Records is the independent label of folk legend/feminist Ani DiFranco, a musical hero in Mitchell's eyes. In short, the influence is very apparent. Words take center stage, as a booklet with complete song lyrics will prove.

Mitchell is a natural-born songwriter who weaves poet's tales from snippets of her personal life and mixes them up with bits of various influences such as religion, obscure writers, romantic love notions, and violence.

This artist only separates her songs via a very thin line, and a blurry one at that. Mitchell is an artist who seems truly able to both differentiate and see relationships between her subjects and influences, while putting her own unique stamp on her songs.

Just like folk singer Bob Dylan, the beauty of the true folk song is not necessarily in the consonant sounding voice of the singer, but in the beauty of the storytelling itself. If you do not mind that sort of quirkiness then, Mitchell's voice is charmingly akin in timber to a child's or an elf's.

Pretty vocal harmonies abound in "Your Fonder Heart," making it one of the more production rich tracks. Generally, this is a very mellow album. If you are looking for an album to "raise the roof," then this is not your best choice. This album is soft, uncomplicated, and real.

In a day and age when the emphasis in the music industry is placed on the objectification of women, an album like The Brightness with its lovingly homemade feel is a welcome change. "Of A Friday Night" seems to echo this sentiment of the modern independent artist that is surrounded by the mundane "mainstream."

Two tunes that are most memorable are the banjo laced and picturesque "Shenandoah," and the act of compassion titled "Hobo's Lullaby."

To sum up the album The Brightness, Mitchell states "I think of music as an affirmation of my romantic sensibilities."? "I want to take people somewhere foreign in my songs, or somewhere unknown, but I also want to give them the whole cadence, the V chord to the I chord, because that's familiar. There's such a fine line to tread that way."