Albums by this artist

The Golden Dove (2002)

Mountains (2000)

Mary Timony

The Golden Dove

---

» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

Mary Timony The Golden Dove Matador, 2002 RiYL: Tara Jane O'Neil, Cat Power, Shannon Wright

Helium frontwoman Mary Timony's first solo album, Mountains, found her sailing toward a world of fables and legends, wrapped in the eerie format of chamber music. Too intellectual for its own sake, the album lacked good tunes that would benefit from the chosen arsenal of baroque/medieval instruments and failed to create the Nico-esque atmospheres that Timony was struggling for. For sure, the idea was intriguing, but the implementation was baffling at best.

The Golden Dove offers more of the same, but the format has found a reason to exist. With her second solo album, Timony returns to earth, revitalized by a renewed sense of adulthood, while continuing the experiments with mood and texture. Magnificent arrangements are a little wasted on childish alt-tunes such as "Look A Ghost In The Eye" and "Ant's Dance." But they help illuminate and fuel the sinister fairy-tale quality of "The Mirror And The Owl's Escape," solemnly framing the hypnoticNico-esque dirge "Dr. Cat" and the medieval and exotic ritual invocation of "14 Horses."

Timony's inspiration comes from distant sources. The vibrant, poppier, vaguely Indian "Blood Tree" would shine on a Belly album, while "Musik And Charming Melodee" copies its rigmarole and syncopated pace from Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain. These post-"riot grrrrl" madrigals, which often reference folk lullabies and children's nursery rhymes, are defined by the contrast between her timid, feeble voice and sophisticated orchestral textures. To top the disorienting feeling, Timony's lyrics blend the surreal imagery of "Alice In Wonderland" and Liz Phair's hyper-realism.

The question is: why does someone capable of the instrumental jam "Ash And Alice" waste her time writing depressed ditties for sensitive little women?

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.