:: Alela Diane - To Be Still

Alela Diane

There is something eerily calming about Alela Diane’s new album To Be Still. The Nevada City, Californian-reared musician, who was attributed with starting a wave of ‘new weird America’ and ‘freak folk’, has woven together an album that sways like the trees on warm summer day. From opening track ‘Dry Grass & Shadows’ to the closer ‘Lady Divine’, Alela Diane enthrals with her heart-aching and mournful vocals. The entire album has this earthy feeling that’s hard to place and has a lot to do with the organic nature of her lyrics, inspired by folk lore and spun into melodies that sound painstakingly handmade and unprocessed. ‘Age Old Blue’ is ghostly ballad about the earth and Alela’s melancholic tones are beautifully accented by the deep voice of visionary singer Michael Hurley. The lonesome violin in ‘Take Us Back’ rings through the dark cloud of banjo and acoustic guitar and transforms the song into an Irish folk piece that is hauntingly enchanting. In ‘The Ocean’, Alela recreates a traditional Native American vibe with some carefully placed percussion and a strangely fitting mandolin. Blessed with an incredible vocal range, Alela sounds very similar to Alanis Morissette in this bittersweet song about love and lost. Maybe it’s the family of artists that Alela Diane worked with that make To Be Still so casually beautiful but also so purposeful. Every violin string and guitar note on the album seems to have been endlessly thought about but the overall effect is so effortless each track feels like it’s sprung out of the earth from nowhere. Gorgeously lyrical and gentle, To Be Still is quite simply a beautiful album from a very talented young folk artist.