Album Review: All My Love In Half Light by Lady Lazarus

As Lady Lazarus, California dreamer Melissa Ann Sweat crafts intimate miniatures, mostly for solo voice and electric piano, and then slowly drowns them in oceans of reverb. As short patterns of chords or intervals revolve hypnotically, overlapping layers of echo and decay well up around them until only the tips of the keyed notes glint out. The music lands somewhere between Grouper and Erik Satie, though Sweat's singing has a decidedly folksy cast.

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Lady LazarusAll My Love In Half Light[Self-released; 2013]By Ray Finlayson; March 7, 2013Purchase at: Insound (Vinyl) | Amazon (MP3 & CD) | iTunes | MOGTweetThere’s one word I keep coming back to when I listen to or think about Lady Lazarus’ music: dirge. That’s not meant as a belittlement or castigation, though. In fact, for the most part it could be argued it’s spot on when describing her music.

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Lady Lazarus’s 2011 debut Mantic exhibited a songwriter in her musical infancy, as Melissa Sweat commandeered a Sylvia Plath reference and created the album with no real experience or training, having begun learning piano just a couple of years prior. Where Sweat’s proficiency could not take her, her creativity and guts did, resulting in wistful sketches where her introspection and the listeners’ coexist. The biggest downside to such raw material is that it’s impossible to recreate, dependent on inexperience and a lack of inhibitions.

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When putting on the Lady Lazarus record All My Love in Half Light, there are a few steps one should follow to ensure it delivers the fullest effect. Find a comfortable listening place. Turn off all the lights. Empty your mind of thoughts. In essence, turn yourself into an empty vessel for about 41 ….

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