Astrid Williamson came to notice as the creative lynchpin (mercurial voice, guitar ambition and beautiful songs) of Goya Dress. Their debut ?Rooms?, produced by John Cale, was critically well received as was Astrid's first... more » solo album ?Boy For You?. Follow up ?Astrid? is essentially an album of love songs, a relationship postmortem. More eloquent and graceful than your basic "broken-hearted-wench" album, it has a sensation of grace under pressure, of comfortable intimacy balanced with vulnerability. ?Calling? invokes the spirit of Carole King's piano based pop with a momentum and a chorus that begs to be thrust into the mainstream in place of other, lesser singer-songwriters. Opening track ?Never Enough? and ?To Love You? match it for immediacy while ?Love?, recalls Tanya Donnelly. All round it's a beautiful combination. ?Call For Beauty? has a beautifully gaunt, but accessible, drum pulse and twinkling electronics that end the album proper on an optimistic note ! "Call for beauty / to know you are alive". But before that, the album has to go through its painful emotional fall-out and rawer ballads. ?Blood Horizon? is redemptive "Well I know that the world is full of grieving and I feel ashamed by the things that make me cry", ?Girlfriend? is plaintive and acoustic, but it's the piano-voice duet ?Tumbling Into Blue? and the eerie ?Bye & Bye? that sound like the songs that Astrid sang with tears in her eyes. ?Bye And Bye? is almost hymnal, although its ghostly ambience and painful lyrics are closer to a personal hell than a restorative heaven. "Making this album felt almost like emotional stripping. There wasn't a lot of hiding behind poetry and illusion." Astrid maintains this album is "the purest and most honest" she's written to date and ironically ?by avoiding it- the most accessible. - Martin Aston« less
Astrid Williamson came to notice as the creative lynchpin (mercurial voice, guitar ambition and beautiful songs) of Goya Dress. Their debut ?Rooms?, produced by John Cale, was critically well received as was Astrid's first solo album ?Boy For You?. Follow up ?Astrid? is essentially an album of love songs, a relationship postmortem. More eloquent and graceful than your basic "broken-hearted-wench" album, it has a sensation of grace under pressure, of comfortable intimacy balanced with vulnerability. ?Calling? invokes the spirit of Carole King's piano based pop with a momentum and a chorus that begs to be thrust into the mainstream in place of other, lesser singer-songwriters. Opening track ?Never Enough? and ?To Love You? match it for immediacy while ?Love?, recalls Tanya Donnelly. All round it's a beautiful combination. ?Call For Beauty? has a beautifully gaunt, but accessible, drum pulse and twinkling electronics that end the album proper on an optimistic note ! "Call for beauty / to know you are alive". But before that, the album has to go through its painful emotional fall-out and rawer ballads. ?Blood Horizon? is redemptive "Well I know that the world is full of grieving and I feel ashamed by the things that make me cry", ?Girlfriend? is plaintive and acoustic, but it's the piano-voice duet ?Tumbling Into Blue? and the eerie ?Bye & Bye? that sound like the songs that Astrid sang with tears in her eyes. ?Bye And Bye? is almost hymnal, although its ghostly ambience and painful lyrics are closer to a personal hell than a restorative heaven. "Making this album felt almost like emotional stripping. There wasn't a lot of hiding behind poetry and illusion." Astrid maintains this album is "the purest and most honest" she's written to date and ironically ?by avoiding it- the most accessible. - Martin Aston
CD Reviews
Surely now...
Nick Hirst | UK | 11/25/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"When she released her debut solo album following the breakup of her (fantastic) band, Goya Dress, Q magazine in the UK had her down as one to watch, with comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Carole King. There was almost a marketing push (bits of TV and the cover of style magazine Dazed and Confused) ... and then nothing really happened. It's not immediately obvious why. You don't really read bad reviews of Astrid, but then you don't really see any reviews of her at the moment.
Boy For You, the solo debut, was pretty universally praised by critics and ignored by the mass public. It was, though, a collection of songs overproduced in the extreme - the echoic, sparse and black-and-white-film ambience of Goya Dress' recordings had been lost to clattering drums and overbright mastering. The whole thing sounded like it was made out of brittle caramel.
This new record goes some way in returning the songs - and that heartstoppingly beautiful voice - to center stage. There are still times when the record sounds like it's had someone elses ideas heaped upon it, smothering the sheer quality of the songwriting. "Never Enough" played live is a haunting piano song with regret and redemption in equal measure; on record, the programmed drums kind of kill the magic, aiming at contemporary without having the edginess - you can't help feeling the whole thing would have been better with live drums. And to say there's a bit too much reverb on some of the backing vocals would be an understatement.
Thing is, Astrid has never professed to being a cutting edge artist, as far as I know. That first album, along with the moodily, trendily washed-out shots in Dazed and Confused, never sounded convincing as part of the acoustic-guitar-and-programmed-sounds thing that singers like Ben Christophers managed to pull of with far more nerdy verve. What she does do is write tugging melodies and beauty-in-the-everyday lyrics which actually strike a chord (rather than sounding like they should), and then sing them in a voice which flutters up out of harsh lows into feathery falsettos, skipping across the top of the mundane arrangements unfettered.
If this record had just been as faithful a reproduction of the songs and the voice as was possible, it would have got five stars, and all the people buying Ryan Adams records and Pete Yorn records would be buying Astrid records. Perhaps what it needs is a touch of Americana (and this coming from a Brit) - not the self-consciousness of the New Orleans-recorded Boy For You, but the kind of no-frills honesty that you get making your records wherever it is that everyone else apart from Astrid does. Perhaps the next record will be the one that gets her the acclaim from the public that the critics have been giving all along. But in the meantime, this is pretty good to be going on with."
Five years on...No less Brilliant!
Paul | 12/04/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Almost five years to the week Astrid has released her second studio solo album. This is a very different collection of tracks from 1998's 'Boy For You'. Gone is the slick production and the big-label money to throw behind this record. In its place, and still amazingly brilliant, is a beautiful albeit at times quiet, mesmerizing and lyrically haunting record that demands repeated listening. Astrid formed her own label 'Incarnation' to put this CD out there and she deserves to be heard on this side of the Atlantic for a change! This is a wonderful, intelligent and very well-conceived record, 'Blood Horizon', 'Never Enough', 'Tumbling Into Blue', 'Lucky', 'To Love You' are outstanding tracks but there is no filler on this CD. 14 tracks, four bonus demos and clocking in at 54 minutes makes this CD a must have!"
Her fans are out there, they just don't know it yet!
Paul | 12/04/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"First came the John Cale-produced 'Rooms' from Goya Dress, the semi-Goth-pop 1996 Album release from Astrid Williamson, Terry De Castro and Simon Pearson. "An all-but-unearthed jewel of the Nude Records stable in the mid-'90s". They released four singles; 'Bedroom Cinema', 'Crush', 'Glorious' and 'Ruby'. All are loaded with non-lp tracks (A & B-Sides!). Hopefully these out-of print treasures will see daylight once again now Astrid has her own label. This album was one of that year's finest alternative pop releases. Elegant arrangements with twisted delicacy, subtle-yet-striking lyricism, and the gorgeous voice of Astrid elevated the band above their press-supported, chart-topping peers of the time. 1998 saw Astrid go solo and release 'Boy For You', three singles, two videos and a slew of beautiful pop songs. Having grown up under the influence of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and the Smiths, Astrid's approach to songwriting from the very start was a form of emotional therapy within the realms of introspection, independence, and catharsis. By this time, she had gathered a vast array of feathers in her cap through outside contributions, including vocal work for Electronic, 4AD's The Hope Blister, and piano work for Tara MacLean. 'Rooms' and 'Boy For You' were two of the finest albums of the 90's. It's 2003 and Astrid', still solo releases 'Astrid' on her own label. It's a heartwarming, sad, beautiful, complicated record that gets better and better with time. Everytime I listen to it I hear some brilliant nuance that I hadn't heard before. I sincerly hope this is the record that finally makes the rest of the world sit up and take notice of this remarkable woman. Her millions of fans are out there, they just don't know it yet."
More Than Enough...Astrid...My fave CD of 2003
Paul | 12/04/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Astrid Williamson, the quixotic former Goya Dress singer-songwriter has released her new 2003 studio album and I am very happy to have it. `Never Enough' should be a UK hit single, `Blood Horizon' may be one of her finest moments, `Lucky' is a song to convert Tori Amos fans, `Tumbling Into Blue' gives me chills while `Bye And Bye' can bring tears. `Call For Beauty', `To Love You' and `Calling' are songs you want to hear again, and now! "Astrid" not only lavishes us with 10 new studio tracks but throws in four new acoustic demos which by themselves are poignant reminders of how powerful, alone, Astrid's voice, guitar and piano can be. 'Superman' is sheer simplicity, hope and tenderness, conveyed even more powerfully in her new live version. (If you get a chance to see Astrid in a small club, spare no expense, get there!) 'This Is How It's Done Here', is another new live favorite while the demo of 'Blood Horizon', stripped-bare, becomes even more heartbreaking (if such a thing is possible). Slightly different lyrics tell a tale of love lost, paths crossed and the heroism and resilience of just getting on with it. 'Close My Eyes' is a beautiful hymn to loving aspiration. Astrid, a classically trained pianist and confessional-style singer/songwriter with a uniquely haunting and beautiful voice, is forever (and somewhat unhappily) being compared to Kate Bush and Tori Amos, which in itself is not a particularly bad thing. While there may indeed be bits and pieces reminiscent of the two (especially Kate), Astrid remains absolutely unique in her songwriting and performance and upon hearing that glorious voice singing `those' songs, comparisons dwindle to nothing and you hear her purely for what she is: Magnificent!"
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1