[.ca] Bound By the Beauty

Amazon.ca:
Bound by the Beauty seems like a retreat to simplicity after the growing complexity of Jane Siberry's earlier work. The artiness--sometimes self-conscious, sometimes not--has been stripped away to let the songs breathe, and it's more playful than anything that came before. The track "Hockey," her homage to the national sport, also makes it her most Canadian album. "Something About Trains" captures the enduring allure of the train whistle both in words and in slide guitar. Siberry's lyrics continue to have a raw, stream-of-consciousness quality--check the funny "Everything Reminds Me of My Dog," for example. A record that takes in both city and countryside, Bound by the Beauty manages to stand slightly in awe of all life's little and big mysteries, while Siberry laughs at herself. --Chris Nickson

GRACEFUL AND POETIC:
Judging by the quality of the songs here, this album will forever remain in my top 10 best album in all genres. She sings about love, loneliness and nature in a most uplifting style. The songs have a type of spiritual quality, from the soaring Bound By The Beauty, to the yearning Something About Trains and Everything Reminds Me..., including the intricately structured Hockey where the swear words do not detract from this spirituality at all. Graceful melodies, poetic lyrics and her crystal voice make this a true classic, on a par with When I Was A Boy. I bless the day I discovered the musical vision of Jane Siberry.

There is a reason she is obscure:
If there were a fire at my house and I could save only one CD, this would be it... ONLY IF I had just one CD to begin with. Since I have more, I prioritize this at the bottom just above the AOL CD ROMs that keep coming in the mail. I was attracted to this album after hearing one of Sibbery's tracks on a compilation album called "Voce, Women of the World". It was enough to suspect she had talent, so I bought "Bound by the Beauty". After four optomistic efforts of trying to like this disk, I just can't. She does have a great voice when she isn't singing in an annoying falsetto (which is about half the time). Her lyrics are so quirkily slapped here and there that they go beyond artistic and become merely self-indulgent. Maybe she has better material on other CD's. This is something I will never know.

Nine Celestial Compositions and One Super Nova:
For non-fans who have been frightened away from Jane Siberry because of reviewer's descriptions such as "quirky," "exotic," and "obscure," Bound By The Beauty would be a suitable choice to investigate this fascinating Canadian singer/songwriter. The CD is accessible: you can tap your feet and sway with the rhythm (well, most of the time). And Siberry enthusiasts (are we "Siberrites"?) need not be dismayed. Jane's intelligence and touches of humor separate her from the oh-so-serious artists. Her observations and narratives are akin to first-rate poetry: she sees beyond what is visual, and reports in an pictorial style which is beyond that of mere mortals (at least years beyond my simple efforts). In 'Something About Trains,' the whistle of a train sent into the silent sky shivers her soul. Jane's "love and heartache" ballads border on hallucinations: "I grabbed your shoulders then I through you as hard as ever" from 'La Jalouse.' Musically inventive? Of course.'Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog' has three verses, two vocal choruses with different melodies, and ends with an extended verse. The lyrics are in the first and second person. A simple piano line holds the composition together. The chorus of 'The Valley' ("We will walk in good company") soars straight-up to heaven. Situated in the center of nine celestial compositions is an inspirational Super Nova: 'The Life Is The Red Wagon' is a beautiful, melodic and driving anthem of supreme companionship and support. "The life is the red wagon simple and strong, but when the feet are draggin', you pull me and I pull you." Who, except Jane Siberry, could effectively use the metaphor of boundless love and a child's red wagon. Only Jane.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy:
I have never been able to get into any of Jane Siberry's other albums, but "Bound by the Beauty," with its idiosyncrasies perfectly balanced against an organic pop sound, hooked me eleven years ago and hasn't let go. It's in my nature to be suspect of cheery pop songs because of the usual music biz cynicism just below the bright and shiny surface, but the thing that keeps me coming back to this recording is the genuine blissfulness it exudes. "The Life is the Red Wagon," the first of these songs I heard, might just be some cornball feelgood ditty in other hands, but when Siberry observes that "when the feet are draggin'/you pull for me/and I pull for you," I'm buying the whole thing, corn and all. I remember playing this album for a friend who didn't take to Siberry's voice, which can slip into falsetto or whisper without warning and hence may be irritating to some. Her vocal style has been vindicated to a certain extent, though, since Shawn Colvin appropriated some of her singing techniques, but the loose meter that Siberry employs here to fit her lyrics in and the way she tosses in casual asides at the end of some lines is completely her own. It's an effective approach that draws something from jazz, though only through suggestion. The playing also benefits from that loose feel, effortlessly changing direction or pulling Latin rhythms into the mix in a way that doesn't seem at all forced. Siberry has a sense of humor, too, and is able to transform something that appears as unwieldy on the surface as "Are We Dancing Now" into the musical equivalent of a good morning kiss. She even gets away with couplets like "I coulda been Miss Punta Blanca/I coulda but I didn't want ta." And anyone who writes a song that blissfully celebrates the Canadian obsession with hockey from the perspective of kids playing on the frozen river is onto something; I still get chills when she sings the line, "They rioted in the streets of Montreal when they benched Rocket Richard, it's true." Somewhere in the midst of all this lurks a kind of Zen simplicity and joy: Siberry writes about trains, her dog, red wagons, hockey, "the hissing of that old steam iron as you press your clothes." There is much reverie here and, by the end of the album, she seems to have made her point: there is also much to love.

A GREAT PIECE OF FOLK ROCK:
Jane's 3 prevoius releases kinda had her pigeonholed as this electronic Joni Mitchell/Suzanne Vega hybrid. Her odd sense of humor gained her comparisons to Laurie Anderson as well. Here she did something completely unexpected. She tossed out all the synthesizers, took herself and her band to an obscure studio in the middle of nowhere, and also employed a couple of KD Lang's sidemen. The result is a very melodic piece of folk/rock, with that goofball sense of humor that one either gets completely or doesn't. One of the oddest things about her career is the fact that Mimi On The Beach from her No Borders Here album became a huge success in Canada. I saw her once in Detroit at a small venue and it was jam packed with people from Windsor. This record, along with When I Was A Boy, ranks as some of her best. Brian Eno dubbed it an undiscovered masterpiece and was highly critical of Reprise records for not doing anything to promote it. From the opening track which sings the praises of nature to the outright silliness Of Miss Punta Blanca, she certainly has a way with words.

• Bound by the Beauty
• Something About Trains
• Hockey
• Everything Reminds Me of My Dog
• Valley
• Life Is the Red Wagon
• Half Angel Half Eagle
• Jalouse
• Miss Punta Blanca
• Are We Dancing Now? (Map III)