Search - Shannon Wright :: Over Sun

Violent, passionate, and dark.

D. Mok | Los Angeles, CA | 04/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Being a Shannon Wright fanatic, I could see this album was different from her previous works without hearing a note. Wright shows her face on an album cover? And the album title is actually comprehensible on first glance! The album credits continue to suggest a change in Wright's direction, featuring only two players in the lineup (Wright herself with drummer Christina Files, who had played with Mary Timony). Finally, Wright's previous albums had all been released one year apart from one another, so the two-and-a-half-year wait between Over the Sun and Dyed in the Wool is the longest she's taken between records ever since she'd gone solo.But if the package and band are different, Wright's musical identity remains intact. Over the Sun is as twisty, difficult, and mysterious as any of Wright's previous works, and sonically continues in the direction of Dyed in the Wool, increasingly casting off the folkish, quiet introspection of Flightsafety in favour of the verbal and melodical mazes first glimpsed on Maps of Tacit.You could say Over the Sun is Wright's art-rock record. Opening track "With Closed Eyes" continues in a tradition of powerful Wright album openers, featuring an insanely twitchy guitar line, funky and primitive, with a definitively pagan feel. "You'll Be the Death" puts folkish fingerpicking on eerie electric guitar, "Black Little Stray"'s guitar could have been a banjo part, and the talk-sing of "If Only We Could" is the closest Wright has ever come to punk rock. "Throw Your Blanket over the Sun" has the album's best vocal performance, weary and soulful, and the muted music and recording (best use of producer Steve Albini's sonic approach I've heard yet) seem to be attempting to conceal some great pain or turmoil.Wright has been progressively moving away from overt melody and more towards textures, and on this record she's found the perfect partner in Albini and drummer Files. Previous drummer Brian Teasley had a powerful sound, but it was almost obnoxious and at times probably less subtle than the music could have warranted. Files' style is much more like Wright's own drumming, more subtle, focusing on feel and timing rather than Bonhamesque brawn, and is a better complement to Wright's sound and songwriting.No Shannon Wright record ever yielded its full identity to me on first try, so I'm sure the complete impact of this record will also elude me until months from now. But Over the Sun is another daring, challenging, and idiosyncratic release from a musical genius whose experimentations are at once fascinating and overwhelming."

F*CKING UNBELIEVABLE!!

Vespinity | New York, NY United States | 05/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, it's Atlantis Black here and I just have to say that I had to stop listening after the first track--it was that intense. I also am a Shannon Wright fanatic and after her last show here in NYC I left with goosebumps and could neither sleep nor have sex for a week. Well, that's exactly how this album (especially the first track) makes me feel. There is nothing like seeing Shannon Wright live and I feel that this album comes closest to capturing that in terms of its emotional intensity. If I hear the word "melodramatic" in one more industry review of this album I'm going to pull my hair out--it's not melodrama, people--it's MUSIC!! Or if it is melodrama, then I want more of it, and now. Right now. Anyway, this album literally drove me to tears (or it could have been the NYC subway system on which I was listening to it on my headphones). Okay, that's all. You buy it and judge for yourselves.XXX
--A"