Leave The Sad Things Behind

Perfectly composed female singer songwriter pop with dark overtones, alt-country giving way to 60’s and 70’s flare at every turn. SF resident Paula has conscripted a who’s who of the SF underground, from her usual Patrick Main to Sean Coleman and even the cellist for the Krono’s quartet. Recorded at Prairie Sun (Cotati) famous as Tom Wait’s studio of choice, this stuff is lush with instrumentation (piano, guitar, organ, strings, brass) and Paula’s pitch pure vocals. Her writing is spot on and some songs have what John Paul George and Ringo could’ve only dreamt of in terms of pop melody hooky refrains and chorus perfection. Paula seems to be on a quest for the perfect pop song, having left her Ennio Morricone dark spaghetti western 4AD flare with the Clinton administration. She’s about this close.

1) pretty, morose, hopeful pop, Paula doing what she does best
2) a dark Spanish strum to this, w/ sad cello
3) waltzy arpeggio
4) upbeat pop, just about as hooky and perfect as can be, “hit” quality
5) slow dark sad, Ennio Morricone feel
6) sad, hopeful, midpaced
7) brass arrangements really drive home the Bacharrach pop feel, 60’s TV theme song feel
8) slow sparse start, upbeat pop feel follows
9) upbeat 60’s pop Wurlizter organ, a Partridge Family cheeriness
10) waltzy ballad, w/ a Cocteau Twins feel in the vocal bridge