Search - Susan Christie :: Paint a Lady

Remarkable work - and remarkably unheard

mianfei | 05/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Susan Christie's "Paint A Lady" is a most unusual and most surprising discovery. Although she had had a novelty single "I Love Onions" released in 1968, the eight songs that make up "Paint A Lady" were not issued until 38(!) years after that.



Yet, the way in which the music on "Paint A Lady" manages to resonate with a much younger audience like myself is quite surprising. Though the music has often been described as folk, there is really much more to it than that. Though it is extremely dreamlike - almost in the manner of Joni Mitchell's late 1970s masterpiece "Hejira", the rhythms and quite different from any female singer/songwriter of the time, being slow yet very much funky. The epic "Yesterday, Where's My Mind" is remarkably like what Jane Siberry was to do on "When I Was A Boy" with its spoken-word intro, and even the beats of "Echo In My Mind" are eerily like what groups like Portishead would aim for in the 1990s. The slower, even darker "Rainy Day" and the title tune have an atmosphere that captures true melancholy remarkably well, whilst "When Love Comes" makes the most of its extreme simplicity without sounding in any way dated.



All in all, if you want an overlooked gem, there are few better places to look. "Paint A Lady" undoubtedly deserves an impartial listen."

Finders keepers, losers weepers.

Metal Queen | Portland, Oregon | 01/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm amazed that this album was released only now..in 2006. Yes it has that '70's psychodelic feel to the music but that is a good thing. Her voice creates this wonderful atmosphere folk/rock that lies somewhere between morrison and joplin. It makes me wonder what other great albums live.. waiting to be released."