Wartime Sweethearts: Pancake Orion

Wartime Sweethearts is the brainchild of Sydney-based musician Louise Nutting and Pancake Orion is her first release. She took up piano at the age of eight and at nineteen studied Music Performance at JMC in Melbourne. With Wartime Sweethearts she has toured extensively throughout Australia. Besides playing keyboards and vocals Nutting wrote, performed and recorded the album at her home in Sydney. For a home based recording the production quality is actually quite good and does not hinder the music in any way. She also has a few guests including Wyatt Moss-Wellington (backing vocals, guitars, ebow, bass) and her sister Kirsten Nutting (backing vocals, drums).

This is a mellow record, very jazzy with a folky pop vibe running through most of the songs. Nutting has a very nice warm voice, deeply rooted in the '60s and '70s. Her music is influenced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Jeff Buckley and is very easy to listen to. Her tunes have a dream-like quality with more than the occasional catchy moment. This is as melodic as it gets, without getting sugary sweet as her songs are too quirky for that. Lovely acoustic guitar combined with moody keyboards and piano add a certain amount of lushness to the sparse arrangements. This is somewhat similar to Wyatt Moss-Wellington's latest CD, in that her music is quite quirky although Nutting has produced a more accessible album.

The ambient tinged opening track "Homing Pigeon" has interesting background harmonies with a steady melodic hum coursing all the way through. For a dreamy melancholic vibe check out the jazzy pop of "The Sea Ceiling" with its playful keys or the soulful jazz of "Bee Bop" which has an Ella Fitzgerald ambiance about it. Pretty acoustic guitar and vocals enhance the start of "Rough Ruby" where the sparse arrangement serves to accentuate the fabulous double bass of Abel Cross. The most heartfelt piece is "Warmest Chord", a love song with a calypso beat and a pretty cool flute intro. The songs do not vary too much from one another which may be a positive or negative depending how one looks at it. On the plus side there is a nice flow from song to song while on the negative side it may become tedious for some listeners. You will have to be the judge.

I sit somewhere in the middle. However, if you like your pop/jazz on the gentle side with dreamy atmospheres and pleasant vocals you could do a lot worse than Pancake Orion.

Track Listing:
1. Homing Pigeon
2. The Sea Ceiling
3. Bee Bop
4. Each to Their Own
5. Rough Ruby
6. I am the Mess
7. Hungry for Heat
8. Warmest Chord
9. Camel Lounge
10. The Wool Wearer
11. Your Button

Added: January 30th 2011
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Artist's MySpace Page
Hits: 2335
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]