When we hear the word gothic, in a musical context, our minds probably conjure images of black-clad bands singing songs about innocence and debauchery, drum machines and spiraling guitars, at least the minds of those of us of a certain age do. But I would argue that “Sun Blood,” the song that opens Emma Hunter’s debut album, is truly gothic. It is mysterious, filled with sonic pathos; it drifts through a haunted landscape, is infused with the arabesque, and is haunted by the sonic traditions of Iberia and North Africa, though lyrically we find ourselves wandering Mayan mythologies.
If that sets a tone creatively, “Where The Roses Grow,” a growling, alt-rocker that tips its hat to Nick Cave, sits a world away musically. What a great one-two and an impressive way to set out the distant and diverse markers that Yolanda exists between.
And if the album proves to be a wonderful journey through geography and genres, “Nightingale’s” Lynchian, south-of-the-border, 60’s surf-strut and “Morire’s” mournful Mariachi balladry show that era is also a demarcation Hunter is happy to jump, traveling back through the decades as readily as she wanders the modern musical map.
If by the time you get to the album’s swan song, “Gates of Love” and its dark and delicious alt-alt-alt-rock torch song seductions, you haven’t realized that you have just experienced something rather revolutionary and sonically brilliant, you should go back to your Oasis records and never bother the real musical world ever again.
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