2005, Asthmatic Kitty Records
The talented and beautiful Liz Janes is one of those singer/songwriters who definitely deserve more recognition. Sure, her stuff may be pretty different and hard to categorize because of its ?weird-indie? flow, but with a few listens anyone can realize what a skillful and crafted songwriter she is. Having not heard her first album, I had no idea how unique this album was going to be. I could tell I was into some real talent here after hearing the first track ?Wonderkiller,? which started off as a psychedelic, almost Hawaiian-like ballad that randomly burst into heavier moments with distorted vocals and a strong horn section. However, it was her more upbeat songs like the frantic, new wave-ish ?Streetlight,? which sounded like an underground gem from the 80s, and the tempo-changing ?Go Between? that I really dug the most. Janes does have her somewhat-normal acoustic singer/songwriter moments like ?Ocean? and ?Baby Song,? and she sounds just as good on her acoustic old-school country moments like ?Poison and Snakes? and the sloppy ?Deep Sea Diver,? which kind of sounds like a drunk singalong (in a good way of course). I also appreciated the weird moments like the highly-uncoordinated ?Sets to Cleaning,? the relaxing and atmospheric mood-setter ?Desert,? and the sudden acoustic-to-electric, quiet-singing-to-outright-belting exercise ?Vine.? Although some of the songs may have carried on for longer than they should have, I must say that as a whole, ?Poison and Snakes? was quite the interesting listening experience for me.