Gold Rings And Fur Pelts

The most striking thing about this album is Sweeney’s voice: controlled, strong, higher register, and just plain beautiful. Think Joan Baez in her younger years when the voice soars, or Emmylou Harris when it’s more restrained. And then there’s the arrangements, just brilliant. Use of autoharp, morin khuur (Mongolian bowed string instrument), horns, strings, percussion. Difficult to classify with a genre, who cares? Sweeney is Canadian and sounds like she could be from anywhere. Incredible stuff. No FCC’s.

*My Favorites*: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8.

1. (4:37) Slow / Mid. Dreamy with mellowy guitar, soft drums and a crunchy horn.
2. *(4:55) Mid. Cool autoharp, cello. A beautiful barrage of sounds.
3. *(5:16) Slow / Mid. Easy-paced, hollow sounding and a bit sparse. Sweeney’s vocals are sultry and drawn-out.
4. *(3:31) Mid. Title track, very worldly with arpeggio style guitar. Very cool.
5. (3:39) Mid. Mellow performance. Plodding beat with a great vocal delivery and a great soaring phrase.
6. *(4:54) Slow / Mid. Ominous with heavy lyrics about a relationship. Acoustic guitar, keys.
7. *(5:39) Mid. Great autoharp, and her voice is liltingly fragile and beautiful. Wow.
8. *(3:20) Slow. Like film noir, everything dark, brooding and impending - what’s gonna happen?
9. (7:33) Slow. Ethereal with lots of space, and just way out there. Percussion, strings. Almost a whispered voice.