Cat Palace – This delight (self-released)

Every now and again a voice catches your ear. I don’t mean a voice in the sense of someone with something to say. I mean an actual voice. The tonal quality of it. The resonance. Maybe the intent of the words too.

David Blaney has a voice. The kind you’re unlikely to hear on The Voice.

First of all it’s deep. Very deep. It reaches down into you and rattles the furniture.

Then, as in this song, it’s used in a measured way. It could be a dirge yet it’s strangely uplifting. There are plain guitar chords and later a drumbeat but it’s all about the voice.

And there’s an ingenious twist to the arrangement. Blaney’s voice is double tracked, the deep lower register with a higher mid-range octave. The latter is way down in the mix to begin, then mixed further up as the song progresses. Finally, it is replaced by a falsetto octave harmony for the final act. It’s such a simple manoeuvre but so devastating in its effect.

Which is to suggest the gathering of the spirits featured in the lyric.

Arresting would be a word. Moving and poetic are two more.

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