Welcome, and Penelope

This is my first post, and it's largely inspired by Ben's efforts over at his blog. I plan to review some films I enjoy, as well as new albums, and books that come my way, more for my enjoyment than anyone else, so nyeah.

With that in mind, I'd like to say a few words regarding Penelope, an album you'll find under the classical section of itunes, though it's quite hard to classify. Though it was written by a classical composer, Sarah Kirkland Snider, who teamed up with playwright Ellen McLauphlin for lyrics, it is the kind of interconnected song-cycle telling a story that is usually reserved for the title of "concept album." What makes the difference is vague, but it has something to do with the instrumentation and complexity of the composition. There's the standard rock quartet for Drums, Bass, Guitar and Singer; there's also a full section of strings, a harp, and a heaping helping of found and added sounds. The group is called Signal, and the orchestration is complex enough to require a conductor to bring the group together.

Shara Worden, a brilliant composer in her own right, is the spectacular voice which takes the listener through the album. Some people may recognize her from her own bands, "My Brightest Diamond" or "Awry", several appearances on albums by Sufjan Stevens, and as the fantastically performed Queen from the Decemberist's sensational The Hazards of Love. Her voice is at once impossibly strong and fragile, versatile due to her strong sense of the character's she sings for and a notable range; both honed during her studies as an Opera singer.

The story of the album, though it has a tendency to become abstract, is fairly straight forward. The titular character is based on Penelope from the Odyssey, though her story takes a slightly different form. Her husband, after disappearing during a war (the war is not named but context strongly suggests vietnam), has returned with no memory of who he is or where he has been since the war ended. The tale is told from her point of view as she attempts to coax the person he used to be from him. It's complicated by the fact that their relationship was not perfect before he left, and as she tries to return him to his own self and cope with his PTSD, she harbors her own feelings of resentment and fear that he may simply return to his old self. Details emerge which suggest he has lived with other women during his time away, and she wonders how they deal with his disappearance, whether they wonder after him the same way she has for year.

The music is at times dark, and haunting, though it attempts to maintain a determined tone. Harsh sounds populate the background, breaking strings, seagull calls, urgent and angry whispers, drawing out a fairly violent subtext and contrast to an album which mostly deals with a woman in a strange kind of hopeful mourning. As it is a classical album, it is not overly populated with hooks, though when they come they come very strong, enabling the listener to maintain focus as the work goes from one song to the next. If the album has a weakness, it's the difficulty it seems to find in finding a different tone for it's sections. Though it is a story, there isn't a lot of sense of movement until the end. I suspect this is intentional-and there is a kind of relief as it enters into it's final two songs (one could call it a third movement), which break the bleak tones quite soundly. We feel the same kind of new breath it's character feels and it is exhilarating.

Overall, I'd recommend this album strongly to anyone willing to meet it halfway. It will take a time investment, and though certain cuts could stand alone as very good singles (This is what you're like and Calypso are fantastic, to name a few), and the album could have used more trimming all around, it should be listened to fully with as few interruptions as possible. The payoff is great though, and overall it's one fans of concept albums shouldn't miss.