Five Stars for the Dark Star
Ruari McCallion | Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK | 04/12/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an outstanding piece of work, worthy of all five stars.
It's taken altogether too long to discover the music of Bernadette McCallion. As you listen to this album, you become aware that long-shut doors are opening in your mind. Her voice strikes you first, naturally: it's clear but ethereal, haunting but as immediate as a whisper. The arrangements weave a complex collection of instruments into a seductive web of sound that allows each to be heard but the whole to be enjoyed as a beautiful blend. It's a clever recipe, which mixes ambient rhythms, indie, a suggestion of funk and a voice as delicate as a crystal rose into a truly tasty dish. And then you start to hear the lyrics.
The music doesn't overwhelm Bernadette's voice, nor does she screech to make herself heard. As the implications of her wonderfully-crafted songs sink into your consciousness you begin to realise that this woman has the ability to put into song the emotions of the city, to explain everything that the young, the old, the lost, the shallow, the vulnerable, the involved and the outcasts have ever felt - and are feeling.
The quite lament of the lost and solitary (Walk On By - not the Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick song, a long way from it); blaming herself for being too close and controlling (the title track, Cry Wolf); the seductive emptiness of the promises of wealth, power and simply being spoken to (House of Straw) - Bernadette McCallion has her finger on the pulse of contemporary life.
This is an astounding, fantastic album. Buy it. Buy two copies and give one to a friend. By a third, in case you need a spare. We want to hear more from this outstanding talent.
The work she's done with Pitch Black Dream is pretty good, too.
Ruari McCallion (no relation - simply coincidence!)"
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1