Search - Shelleyan Orphan :: Helleborine

Shelley, rich and strange...

Eric Hemphill | ARIZONA | 01/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shelleyan Orphan are one of those peculiar little groups that show up once in a while, make some stunning music, and then disappear. They have no peers, so trying to describe who they sound like is impossible. They are etherial, and never more so than on their first album "Helleborine," a stunning mix of orchestral sweetness and lyrical mastery. Long before their demise into songs with titles like "Dead Cat," the Orphans were writing songs like "Epitaph Ivy and Woe," juxtaposing the generally sweet and upbeat timbre of the music with the often graphic lyrics describing a cemetery and a charnel house. On "Anatomy of Love," vocalist Caroline Crawley asks the same questions that anyone that is in love asks: "Does it still move you? Does it still make you feel that?" "Cavalry of Cloud," with it's gorgeous introduction, will give you chills. "Helleborine," the album's only instrumental track, is another example of the artistic beauty the Orphans had a complete mastery of. This was their supreme moment, and when they began their fall, they would fall far."

A dreamlike, haunting beauty

William Timothy Lukeman | 09/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While subsequent releases by Shelleyan Orphan have their remarkable charms, this first one exists in a sublime world of its own. The English Romantics surely would have recognized kindred spirits in this music! It's not merely ethereal & lovely, but emotionally intense as well, with the strings & woodwinds contributing a real richness & depth rather than mere surface prettiness. Add to that the voice of Caroline Crawley, sounding like some Siren calling through ocean mist & moonlight, and you have a quietly stunning album. Precious? Pretentious? Well, if so, then in the best possible way! It's like some luscious, exotic dessert -- not for everyday consumption, and certainly not for everyone -- but once tasted, never forgotten. Highly recommended!"

The first and best

wyldling | Knoxville, TN USA | 09/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In their debut album Shelleyan Orphan showed everyone what they could have been...but then weren't. Listen and cherish this album, because Century Flower has only an echo of it, and Humroot lost it altogether. The tremendous purity and richness of Helleborine will probably never be surpassed, since all bands like them have passed away."