Album Review: Boots by Noe Venable

Album Name: Boots
Artist: Noe Venable
Year/Label: 2002 / Independent

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Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

Wow, is this ever a cool CD. Noe Venable has quite a unique voice, though someone I played this for thought it was Mazzy Star. I don’t really see that, but I suppose if you’re going to be compared to someone Hope Sandoval is not bad!

She gets us right out of the gate with title track, “Boots” which is a stunning song. It’s got a great low drum beat, that’s barely there, but so powerful. The eerie backing vocals are chill inducing

“Prettiness” makes great use of the light picking on the guitar and her voice floating over the top is sublime. She’d probably hate that I say the song is pretty, but it is. I love it when artists take a sound and then put words to it that are disparate. This is a lovely flowing song but the lyrics start out:

“I’ve never been one for
Prettiness, prettiness
Thinking of lace ’bout makes me puke.”

She utilizes this method quite frequently, actually. The music is gorgeous, the lyrics almost harsh, a beautiful combination.

Well, I won’t go over every song because they’re all gems.

If intelligent atmospheric “pop” is your cup o’ tea pick this one up.

Posted on November 20, 2003


Review by Anna Maria Stjärnell

Noe Venable’s voice is part childlike wonderment and part womanly expressiveness.

She puts it to good use on her album. Her folksy , intriguing songs really impress. “Prettiness” is sharp lyrically and has a sweet melody. The instrumentation is sparse and the vibe laidback.

“Tinkerbell” plays around with the Peter Pan companion and winds up in a very strange place. Venable has some nice Bjork-ish vocal moments here.

“My Insomnia” deals with an all too familiar phenomena and has a jaunty tune that contrasts well with the lyric. “Look, Luck” is a sweet song that.s enlivened by Alan Lin’s violin playing.

Noe Venable has the voice and the tunes to make an impact on anyone who’s lucky enough to hear her.

Posted on September 26, 2002

Track Listing
Listen to track samples
1. Boots
2. Prettiness
3. Tinkerbell
4. Stolen Thing
5. My Insomnia
6. Climb
7. Happiness
8. Look, Luck
9. Julia
10. Wild Blue & Yonder
11. Don’t Stop Crying
12. In Memoriam

[Noe Venable Official Site]

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