Gothtober- the Keening :"Devotion"

Rebecca from Subrosa returns with her second album from this dark folk project. The opening track has a more organic, almost dreamy Cowboy Junkies feel, with her vocals smoothly floating over the instrumentation. "Fitful Sleep" has a stormier dynamic, with the drums crashing in. Some darker chords rein in the emotional center. The first heavier distorted chords don't surface until "The King"; this gives it a doomier feel. This is the first song that finds the project moving more in this direction. 

Things are stripped down to a piano on "O Mother."  The strings come in to build a more longing atmosphere. The more fragile vocal lines dance around the emoting instrumentation. "Little Bit of Blood" has a warmer hint of country in the melody. This brings back the comparisons to Cowboy Junkies, though they are more atmospheric even here, as the strings are layered. The most accessible radio-ready song on the album without being a compromise to what this project is. If it were edited down as it does, it goes off into a Swans-like strummed section that builds up. 

"Time Travel" has one of the stronger vocal lines when it builds up instead of the simmer the verses hold. When the songs are sprawled out to the seven-minute mark, at times the third act seems like a separate piece. AT over seven and a half minutes, "The Murder of Anna Brown" is the longest song. It's the album closer, so this is forgivable, as they take their time with the first verse. There is almost a 60s rock proto-doom feel to this. Overall, this is more ambitious and dynamic, more folk rock, but if you liked the first album, then this is perfecting what they did there. I will give it a 9.5 and see how it grows on me.

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