Most music has at its heart a sense of place. Well, good music does, at least. There is very often something of the landscape, be it city or suburbs or rural setting, that soaks into the songs, even if those songs themselves aren’t necessarily about those surroundings.
It is certainly the case with Jana Pochop’s latest album, Powerlines. Being based in Albuquerque, how could the baked and barren earth, the majestic mountains, the heat and haze of New Mexico find its way into the DNA of her music…how could it not? But here, things are actually more deliberate than that, with Pochop aiming to “capture the literal ‘ghosts’ of the landscape, recording the distinctive reverberations of artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s” work and home. Powerlines, therefore, is not just a collection of great songs; it is a sonic map and musical reflection of the region.
“I Miss Driving” sets her stall out perfectly, a gorgeously rich blend of folk finesse and cinematic indie, and acoustic heart cocooned in magical montifs and ambient textures, it’s evocative and elemental, so much so that even someone unfamiliar with those south-western vistas will begin to visualise their grace and grandeur.
“Down Low” is Pochop at her most understated and rootsy, but the song still has a gentle momentum and build, picking up delicate beats and beguiling musical layers as it moves forward, whilst “The Architect + The Artist” is a wonderfully ornate and elegant array of more complex arrangements, though no less smooth and seductive as it flows over the listener.
And if “American Habits” is a serene, string-washed slice of sonic eloquence, “Feeling Around in the Dark” plays the album out with gorgeous swathes of beat and beauty, pulse and poise…and poignancy.
Albums like Powerlines are rare things these days. To find such a collection of songs that are so well crafted, so intriguing, intimate yet relatable, so achingly beautiful, and where every song is so meaningful and memorable, so single-worthy that the whole thing feels like a Greatest Hits compilation, is something that you need to wrap your arms around and never let go of.
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