BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Dear Time's Waste: Spells (DTW/Isaac)

 |   |  1 min read

Dear Time's Waste: Son of a Fright
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Dear Time's Waste: Spells (DTW/Isaac)

The previous EP in '08, Room for Rent, by this Auckland singer/writer Claire Duncan was notable for its droning and hypnotic qualities (guitar washes) alongside delicately realised folk, and you detected a talent which could stretch in many directions, from a constrained Bjork-meets-JAMChain to slightly disconcerting meditations on love . . . and throughout pastel shadings which were quite enticing and magical.

All of this makes the title of this new album fairly apt. Again there are spare line-ups on her 10 songs (solo, duo and trio) and the out-of-focus cover shot suggests similar contents to that interesting EP.

And while there are those elements as before (Swallowed takes care of the acoustic end, Up Shoulders a Monster the more textural side), this debut album springs into pop-life with These Words Stick To Me which could have come off a Look Blue Go Purple or early Verlaines album with its choppy guitar chords, and And So I Was Returning sounds like a serious bid for radio attention which you'd hope would be successful, the nagging guitar line behind her vocals and the change in dynamics make it repeat-play listening.

Alice pulls a full band to the fore for gritty alt.pop and Messy Text is another sliver of dark, intelligent pop ("enter the historian and his public" is a fine opening line) which sounds effortlessly broody but ready to explode . . . but thankfully doesn't do the obvious.

As before also, Duncan allows for found sounds to be dropped in discreetly (as on the opening of the neatly multi-tracked Son of a Fright which floats on carpet of keyboards) and the closer is a piano ballad We Are Where We Were Before -- which isn't true actually.

This isn't Dear Time's Waste as they/she was/were before.

This is a much more diverse, thoughtful, deep and interesting incarnation.  


Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Yellow Ostrich: Cosmos (Barsuk/Southbound)

Yellow Ostrich: Cosmos (Barsuk/Southbound)

Although taking its title from Carl Sagan's 80s television series about the universe, the cosmological and astral references are musically few on this electronica-cum-alt.rock album by the... > Read more

Richard Walters: AM (pilotlights)

Richard Walters: AM (pilotlights)

This emotion-driven English singer-songwriter who works in the world of electronica-cum-balladry delivered one of Elsewhere's favourite albums in 2010, The Animal. His milieu is an area which... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Joe Louis Walker's Blues Conspiracy: Live on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (Stony Plain)

Joe Louis Walker's Blues Conspiracy: Live on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (Stony Plain)

That this was recorded on a Caribbean cruise might tell you all you need about its crowd-pleasing nature. But Walker's guests (guitarists Johnny Winter, Tab Benoit and Duke Robillard, Watermelon... > Read more

THE BEATLES: ABBEY ROAD REMIXED AND EXPANDED; PART ONE (2019): Here come the sun kings, again

THE BEATLES: ABBEY ROAD REMIXED AND EXPANDED; PART ONE (2019): Here come the sun kings, again

It is a sad irony that the last album the Beatles recorded, the polished smooth Abbey Road and arguably best produced album of their career, would not be the one to act as a coda to their lifespan... > Read more