Alina Simone
Issue #33
Placelessness (54°40’ or Fight!)
By Saundra Sorenson
Published: September 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
What might first smack of a formidable Cat Power imitation progresses into a tidy, well-paced album that seductively yanks away the pesky institution of “abab” rhyme scheme and plasters paragraphs of lyrical reflections in its stead
On Placelessness, Alina Simone bridges the gap between golden-throated pop princesses and the more substantive reigning queens of indie rock, but to mark her as derivative is grossly unfair — the woman simply has body. Simone integrates the great tradition of spoken word intro into the body of her songs, giving free-flowing verse the appearance of form; with the addition of the occasional feminine rhyme scheme, Simone demonstrates method in her madness.
But even with her deeply personal chunks of memory laid out in verse, Simone avoids traipsing into the realm of unhinged poetic tirade or performance art: her songs are tightly crafted. A strong sense of identity (the occasional addition of a slow-moving fiddle seems only natural, even called for) marks a collection of wry reflections on human interconnectivity (“Velvet Painting”), cruel analysis of a numbed, jet-setting existence (“Swing”), eulogies for forgotten evenings (“Nightswimming”), tirades against mindless suburbanism (“Black Water”), and skeptically optimistic tales from the road (“Pacifica”).
Placelessness has the stripped-down sound of a burgeoning indie artist bearing herself to a small, dark room of unseen admirers. Simone, with her second album, seems poised to claw her rightful place among the guitar-heavy rock goddesses of the world.
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