CD Reviews

White Hinterland

Phylactery Factory | Dead Oceans

By CAITLIN E. CURRAN | April 22, 2008

3.5 Stars

In January, Scituate native Casey Dienel blogged: “For the present and foreseeable future, there won’t be any more Casey Dienel.” It wasn’t an Internet suicide note but news of a musical departure of sorts. Critics adored the homegrown folk quirk of her 2006 solo debut Wind-Up Canary (Hush), which was recorded on a farm in Leominster. Yet as she noted in a recent NPR interview, Dienel’s a collaborator. So she formed a quartet, reinvented herself as White Hinterland, and schlepped to Portland (no cows or silos in sight) to record her first post-Dienel album, Phylactery Factory. Although its nine tracks retain her folk leanings and delicate-yet-sensual vocals (which register somewhere between Feist and Joanna Newsom), “Calliope,” a bittersweet plea underscored by soft piano and trembling violin, and “A Beat Washed Ashore,” with its eerie, piercing reverb, and sweeping piano speeding and slowing the tempo in waves, boast a darker, more polished sound. Dienel’s lyrics tend to drift toward poetics (there’s even a Robert Frost reference on the final track), but when “Napoleon in Waterloo” develops with its added instrumentation into a final mélange of staccato drums and scissoring strings, its resolves more like a good story.

ID Check: Casey Dienel
The grand canary
ID Check: Casey Dienel - sidebar
Bands to watch out for
Promising local releases in ’06
More

Topics: CD Reviews , Casey Dienel , Joanna Newsom , Robert Frost , More

Comments

Add a Comment

Today's Event Picks

[WORDS] SUPER NOVA: JAMES BOICE

Plus 6 more >>

ARTICLES BY CAITLIN E. CURRAN

QUIZ-BOWL KIDS | January 08, 2009
Harvard rebuilds its team and answers some hard questions

LOVERS' ROCK | December 12, 2008
Think just being in a relationship is tough? Meet five bands who've combined work and play — and against all odds ended up making sweet harmonies

NEVER SAY SMILE | November 19, 2008
Annie Leibovitz highlights her career

MIXED MEDIA AT THE PAPERCUT | November 18, 2008
Cultural staples

SAN FRANCISCO TREAT | October 28, 2008
Deerhoof at the Middle East Downstairs, October 23, 2008

See all articles by: CAITLIN E. CURRAN

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
As our planet edges closer to the apocalypse, the escapist, fantasy world of cryptids is suddenly coming to life

LOWER ALLSTON, YEAR SIX

PHOTOS: FIRE NEAR FENWAY
Charred grilled on Peterborough Street

REVIEW: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION
Domino (2009)

BUSTING BALLS: 20 WAYS TO IMPROVE SPORTS
We blow the whistle on the ridiculous rules and quirks that make the games lame

DAILIES GO DARWIN
Reports of newspapers' death are exaggerated — but after the changes coming in 2009, will we still recognize them?

PHOTOS: FIRE NEAR FENWAY
Charred grilled on Peterborough Street

ADAM BOCK IS A GOOD LISTENER
Talking the talk

DANIEL NAGRIN
(1917–2008)

JOAN DIDION ON STAGE, SPALDING GRAY ON THE PAGE
Grief watch

HOT TOPICS

Boston Symphony Orchestra , Kim Deal , Radiohead , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Harvard University , Kurt Weill , James Levine , James Robinson , John Harbison , Brian Eno

CD Reviews

White Hinterland

Decay artist

Flashback episode

D-Tension and Effect

Keaton Kustler-Klein

ID Check: Chelsea Spear