For well over a week I listened to Mariana, the latest album by Michelle Blades, incessantly, struggling with some unknown hostility while trying to write the review. As I began listing the qualities of the album, of the artist, the epiphany struck me. My hostility is jealousy.
I’ve never been a jealous person. It’s just not in my nature. I might admire the qualities or skills possessed by another but never to the point of a manifest desire. This likely stems from my own grandiose vision of self but that’s another story entirely.
She has only just embarked on her twenties yet she speaks wisdom well beyond her years without adopting a knowing disinterest that often appears in accompaniment. No, Blades manages to sound ancient and youthful at the same time. Playful yet resonant. Innocent yet worldly. It’s just not fair.
Mariana contemplates what we carry with us from childhood into our adult lives. The album opens with “Like Wildflowers” and immediately establishes a sense of maturation beyond that of previous albums. Her distinct voice sounds richer but has lost none of its defining agility.
In the songs of Mariana, a metropolitan feel pervades in the graceful shifting of languages and landscapes. Rather than attempting to name or qualify the world, Blades moves through it gently with her music.
While earlier recordings often held to a folksy, stripped down sound, a veritable who’s who provide the backing instrumentation for Mariana including Tobie Milford on violin and River Jones himself on electric bass. The added elements lend power and elegance to Michelle’s finely crafted songs.
In the song, “Hasti” Blades sang in admission “I was never very good at that.” Finally, I thought, something she might not do well until further listening revealed a song about the unburdening of memories one might seek to no avail.
Liz Phair once made out her list of ideal qualities in the song “Perfect World.” In it she explained, “I want to be cool, tall, vulnerable, and luscious. I would have it all if I’d only had this much.” Maybe we all have those little lists and mine would go a bit differently. I want to be a worldly, wise, ever-wondering creatrix of beautiful things. And that’s where I find this foreign jealousy. Although almost ten years my junior, I want to be Michelle Blades when I grow up. I just can’t like her anymore. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to stop listening to her music.
Make sure to get out to the release of Mariana on February 18th at the Trunk Space. Maybe you’ll see me there. I’ll be the disgruntled girl in the back who can’t help singing along to every word.
